Argiope agrentata - Silver Orb Weaver

[Loops117]

Hello all.

Did some quick searching on this site, as well as google. I didn’t find too much information on keeping orb weavers, which wasn’t too surprising. Well, I personally scooped a couple Argiope agrentata slings from the lower keys a few weeks ago and have been homing them in my setups.

I have not found much information regarding the keeping of orb weavers, so I am improvising as well as I can. One thing I read is that orb weavers require lots of space for their webs, and they won’t make small webs that fit to a small enclosure. Some people even go as far as putting a small box in the top corner of their room along with 1 or 2 tall house plants infront of it for them to come out and make their web on. There was actually quite a lot of recommendations like this, so I assumed the spiders are known to stay were they’re set.

With that being said, I did my first little test. I have a tall bug cabinet that has about a foot of open space at the top. None of my bug setups reach the top of the cabinet, so it’s prime real estate for a spider. My cabinet already attracts many small bugs as it’s a warm humid area in my garage, so I figured I would give it a wack. I created a small branch and fake plant setup and attached it to the top corner of my cabinet. I then added a small cardboard sleeve for the spider to slip in to. I did this all last night and released the little guy onto its new home.

This morning I checked out my cabinet, and the silver orb weaver had created a web that span the entire top of the cabinet. It didn’t touch any of the setups inside the cabinet, nor did was it attached to the doors. Ontop of that, he/she had already started eating as it had 3 little wrapped up insects caught in its web.


Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the sling, but I will tonight.

This is one of the adults I found. Released shortly after the video.

 

[spookyvibes]

Thank you so much for sharing! I’ve been looking for something like this since, as you said, there isn’t much info out there on orb weaver care.

 

[Loops117]

Id say it's working so far.
I forgot to unstack some stuff last night =/

 

[Loops117]

It's been about a week now and she's been a real treat to have in the cabinet. She stays in her spot and accepts whatever i give her. She's eating well considering i've found 4 or 5 dried up carcasses under her spot on the web that are not part of the diet i feed her.
Anyway, here's a video of her eating.

 

[PidderPeets]

That's a neat idea! I've always wanted an Argiope sp., but whenever I've seen them for sale, I've hesitated due to the space they need. I do have a giant mesh insect enclosure (it's like 2.5ft x 2.5ft x 4ft if I remember right), but it's so large I don't like setting it up. This might be a good idea for me to consider.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[basin79]

It's been about a week now and she's been a real treat to have in the cabinet. She stays in her spot and accepts whatever i give her. She's eating well considering i've found 4 or 5 dried up carcasses under her spot on the web that are not part of the diet i feed her.
Anyway, here's a video of her eating.

She's so much different than my Nephila madagascariensis. Your lass goes hell for leather. My lass is very purposeful.

 

[Loops117]

That's a neat idea! I've always wanted an Argiope sp., but whenever I've seen them for sale, I've hesitated due to the space they need. I do have a giant mesh insect enclosure (it's like 2.5ft x 2.5ft x 4ft if I remember right), but it's so large I don't like setting it up. This might be a good idea for me to consider.

Thanks for sharing!

She'll eventually outgrow my cabinet, which she'll then be moved to the corner of the bug room. I'm hoping by continuing her feeding, as well as any food caught by her will help keep her in the same area. Time will only tell.

She's so much different than my Nephila madagascariensis. Your lass goes hell for leather. My lass is very purposeful.

She LOVES the red runner roaches i feed her. I've noticed the more vibration her prey makes, the faster she moves in for the kill.