What to feed wild golden orb spider?
It's a lot of fun to watch and feed spiders! And if your spider is quite big, then they're female. Male orb weaving spiders are usually very small. You can feed her flies, as well, but she is perfectly capable of getting her own food. I'm not saying don't bother, just that she'll be okay. :) Could you post a photo of her? I'd love to see a golden orb weaver!
If I feed my spider a lot will it get bigger?
Feeding Wolf spiders have a fairly flexible abdomen that helps them to be able to eat a lot of food when it is present. They also can do fairly well without much food for a week or longer as they are able to decrease their metabolism when food is absent. Wolf spiders will eat a large number of different kinds of prey. They can take a prey item their own size or smaller and do best with flies, crickets and other spiders. The exoskeleton on many beetles is too tough. In addition to taking live prey, wolf spiders will scavenge and get nourishment from carcasses. You can sometimes see a spider pick up a leg or a wing from a cricket. Different species may show different prey preferences or abilities to subdue prey. Also, species may differ in how much they are willing to scavenge. Some insects may have some defenses against spiders. Potential prey items for wolf spiders include house flies and mosquitos, crickets, beetle larvae (meal worms) and other spiders. Wolf spiders often will capture a prey item by grabbing the prey and then the spider will flip over onto its back while holding the prey item in its fangs. This may be particularly useful when grabbing a cricket as the strong jumping legs of the cricket could puncture the spiders abdomen. A good class project would be to determine the range of prey items a particular spider could eat. Depending on the size of the prey, spiders can be offered food daily; they also do fine eating once or twice a week. A good rule of thumb for the size of the prey is to offer spiders prey their own size or smaller.
I found a spider egg sack the mother died what do i do?
The spiders that lay their eggs in sacks generally just die, like Charlotte's Web. The eggs will hatch the next spring and the babies will do just fine. Some spiders carry their babies for some time. However, if they overstay their time, they become lunch. You know the Black Widow mates, and then she eats her mate. Spiders generally eat insects. If you would try to keep them that's what you'd have to supply. The insects would have to be small enough for them to kill. If the insect is too tough it could kill the baby spider just trying to get away. Beside the Black Widow,the Brown Recluse is extremely toxic to humans. Even if they don't kill you, you can suffer a lot of secondary ills. The area where it bites turns black and can fall out. Internal organs such as the spleen can be overdosed with their toxin and need to be removed. If you decide to keep the spiders release them where you are not in contact with them. When you can identify them, then think of keeping them as pets. I like to watch spiders too. However, I am cautious around them. Just because they are what nature made the, some can kill you. If you live in a colder area they wont hatch till it warms up in the spring. If you keep them in a warm area they may hatch much, much earlier.
What can I feed my spider, Booniqua?
Your pet will eat just about any insect it can trap in its web. Spiders prefer live food, and because they cannot 'chew' solid food, need to be able to make a 'soup' from their prey. That is the whole reason for their fangs and venom. Spiders don't eat a lot, and can go rather long times without eating. Tossing a cricket or roach in her web from time to time. will keep her around and happy. Just make sure any insects you do give her, have not been in contact with pesticides. My pet has been behind my water cooler for over 4 years now.
If spiders are such effective predators, why aren't there huge ones competing at the top of the food chain?
Several answers to your question, actually: 1) Because they are so effective in their ecological niche, there is no evolutionary pressure to grow any larger -- they do just fine at the size they are currently at. If growing bigger conferred an evolutionary advantage, they would gradually do so. And bigger is not necessarily better; since they are not at the top of the food chain, the bigger they get, the more easily they may be spotted by potential predators and eaten. 2) Spiders are physically incapable of growing much bigger than they currently are, because of how they're put together -- since their bodies are supported by an exoskeleton, all their soft tissues are sort of slopping around inside a hard shell, and if they got any bigger, these tissues would only sag under their own weight and become useless. Also, spiders do not possess a circulatory system like larger animals -- they breathe through "book lungs," which are kind of like gills on the underside of their abdomens and deliver oxygen directly to some of their tissues, while the rest are served by spiracles, little air tubes that lead from various points on their legs through the soft tissues. Grown any larger, and they simply couldn't have enough transport mechanisms to oxygenate their entire bodies efficiently, and they'd be prone to suffocation. You'll notice that the larger a spider gets, the more it tends to become spindly -- those big Mexican cave spiders may have a three-foot leg span, but their bodies are still only the size of a small rat and their legs are just long spindly things. 3) As another poster mentioned, what would they eat? Larger predators require greater energy input to maintain themselves, so unless you're talking about a world full of giant bees and butterflies, it would mean they would evolve to compete in a new niche, hunting small rodents or fish (though one spider actually does catch small fish), competing against snakes, birds, and carnivorous mammals for food. There's a lot more to eat down where they are in the middle of the food chain than there is at the top.
What can I feed to a spider in my house who steadfastly refuses to eat flies and even runs from those who fly close or get caught in its web?
There are a few things to consider.1.) Spiders don’t need to eat a lot.Since spiders don’t waste a lot of energy generating body heat, and don’t waste a lot of energy doing really anything but ambushing prey, they don’t actually need to eat a whole lot.Some spiders will appear starving and eat up everything in sight, but this is usually instinct and not actual need driving them. Most of the time, they just simply aren’t hungry.2.) Spiders preparing to grow don’t eat a lot.This stage is called Pre-molt. During this time, spiders are even less interested in food or being disturbed, as they are preparing to slip out of their old skin. Again, this can take MONTHS for something like a large tarantula, or it can be period of days or so. They may not even eat very much for a while after they molt.On a tarantula, they get slow and lethargic, and their skin darkens as the molt time approaches. That said, I can’t be sure what the process is for a regular house spider, but I imgine its something similar.3.) Spiders are picky about sizeMake sure that the housefly isn’t too big (or maybe too small?) for your spider. Normally, a spider will kill and eat anything it can overpower. That said, spiders aren’t geniuses. Even if something really big gets hopelessly caught in their web, they might avoid it because they are intimidated by the prey’s size. The spider’s instinct is to avoid harm and to not pick hard battles. The video of a tarantula running away with a snake is rare for a reason. Most wouldn’t try it, and the one that did probably didn’t realize what it was pouncing on.At the same time, in the off chance you have a very large spider, a housefly won’t be enough. Its doubtful any but my smallest tarantulas would even bother with a housefly.The rule of thumb is that the prey shouldn’t be anything larger than the spider’s body, nor should it be very much smaller than the spider’s prosoma (head section).My guess is that your house spider is probably smaller than the average housefly and had been preying on smaller creatures. It may pay to get some flightless fruit flies from the pet shop (since you don’t want the flying kind infesting your house).
Should I remove a spider web?
If your house has insect screens already, I’d say go ahead. Spiders are really only beneficial in homes with no insect screens, and in places where there are a lot of mosquitoes and the risk of mosquito-borne diseases is great.It varies on what spider you have as well. If it’s the classic wheel-shaped web, then you have an orb-weaver spider. They are all quite harmless and nonaggressive, but also quite useless as they really only capture larger insects like moths. I suggest capturing it and releasing it outside.If it’s a mass of tangled webs or cobwebs then you likely have cellar spiders (Pholcidae) which are very effective against insect pests (as well as other spiders), but also very messy. They can blanket the house very rapidly if left unchecked. They’re easily identifiable because they have very long spindly legs and tiny bodies.If you have a cobweb-type of web, there’s also a chance that you might have any of the widow spiders (Latrodectus) as well, since a lot of these spiders are synanthropic (they like living in human structures). That’s where it becomes dangerous, since these spiders have medically significant venom (the genus includes the black widows of the US and the redbacks of Australia). Incidentally, cellar spiders also often prey on widow spiders.So yes, unless you have an insect problem, you can remove it.
Can betta fish eat spiders?
There are always a lot of spiders in my house (*shivers*) so much so that in the last week or so, I've found a couple unlucky spiders in the bottom of my betta's tank! I'm assuming they were attracted to his LED light, got too close and fell in. Both of the spiders that I found appeared to have missing parts, which I assume is because my betta either ate them or bit at them out of curiosity/instinct? I left the first one in there for a couple days before removing it because it started to deteriorate and I didn't want it to contaminate the tank. My question is, if my betta happened to eat some of the spiders, could it cause him harm? Like by transmitting bacteria or something to him or the tank? Do bettas even like eating spiders? Thanks for any info you can offer!
How long does it take a baby wolf spider to get full grown?
Spiderlings can eat flightless fruit flies and other small insects no bigger than the spider. No ants. They don't care for pill bugs either. You have to keep them separated, lest they eat each other. I keep spiderlings in large pill bottles. After a female makes an egg sac, it takes about 15 to 20 days for the spiderlings to hatch. She will even drag her egg sac with her, even hunting food. They will then ride on mamas back for about a week, then disperse. this is when you need to separate them. If properly cared fore, they usually molt about 6-8 times, and become full grown in about 3 to 4 months. Sometimes longer depending on the species. Large deli trays work great for cages, and the big wolf spiders could use a 5 gallon aquarium. I never raised wolf spiders, but my first pet spider was a carolina wolf spider, nearly as big as my palm. http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthre... http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthre... Hope this helps.