Man Untangles Wolf Spider

[dord]

Thought I'd share this video where a guy helps a wolf spider get carpet fibers off its feet, it seems to cooperate as well!

 

[NYAN]

I saw this earlier this week. I think many thought the spider was just exhausted and dehydrated.

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

aawwww thats really nice

 

[Ungoliant]

I don’t know if she was “cooperative” or just too exhausted or tangled to resist, but I had a similar experience with a gravid Phidippus otiosus.

I was about to leave the house in December 2015. While I was waiting to hear if the alarm set properly, I was looking at the spiderwebs on my porch. I saw a Phidippus otiosus stuck in the web of a Kukulcania hibernalis. Normally, I would let nature take its course, but I couldn’t leave the cute jumper to her fate.

After removing her from the web, she was hopelessly entangled in Kuk silk. (If you’ve ever handled this silk, you know that its texture makes it incredibly sticky, like velcro.) She calmly sat in my hand as I spent 30 minutes with tweezers removing as much silk as I could. Once she had regained her mobility, she wouldn’t let me go anywhere near her legs with the tweezers to get the last few strands.

Here she is after I removed most of the Kuk silk. (I kept her for a few days, but I didn’t have any feeders she would take, so I released her in my yard.)

♀ Phidippus otiosus (Salticidae)

• Ungoliant
• Mar 16, 2018
• 12
• jumping spider otiosus phidippus phidippus otiosus salticidae

A gravid female jumping spider that I rescued from a Kukulcania hibernalis web.

Female Phidippus otiosus (Salticidae)

• Ungoliant
• Jan 2, 2017
• 4
• jumping spider otiosus phidippus phidippus otiosus salticidae

A gravid female jumping spider that I rescued from a Kukulcania hibernalis web.