My jumping spider just molted and I don't know what to do.

[ikikikiriki]

I'm an antkeeper and don't really care for spiders but four months ago I saw a jumping spider in my yard, thought it was cute and caught it. After some light googleing I made it an enclosure and fed it things that were small enough for it to eat, mostly Lasius niger workers but I didn't want it to eat formic acid so I started feeding it my springtails and eventually just moved it into my springtail enclosure all together since the place where I was keeping it before was pretty bad. It loves it in there but some time ago it made a little web tent in the corner and eventually stoped leaving it and a few days ago I noticed that it had molted. Today I picked up the enclosure and it bolted out of the tent. That's the back story. I want to do some maintenance on my springtail enclosure and I want to know when can I temporarily move my spider out to do so and if it needs some special care after molting.

Thanks!

 

[Inverts4life1]

I'm an antkeeper and don't really care for spiders but four months ago I saw a jumping spider in my yard, thought it was cute and caught it. After some light googleing I made it an enclosure and fed it things that were small enough for it to eat, mostly Lasius niger workers but I didn't want it to eat formic acid so I started feeding it my springtails and eventually just moved it into my springtail enclosure all together since the place where I was keeping it before was pretty bad. It loves it in there but some time ago it made a little web tent in the corner and eventually stoped leaving it and a few days ago I noticed that it had molted. Today I picked up the enclosure and it bolted out of the tent. That's the back story. I want to do some maintenance on my springtail enclosure and I want to know when can I temporarily move my spider out to do so and if it needs some special care after molting.

Thanks!

Right after molts spiders are really soft and can be damaged easily. For my T's I wait for at least a week to do anything so they harden up but since it's a jumper and small it should take less time to harden up so I would wait probably at least 3-4 days or maybe even a week if you want to be safe.

 

[ikikikiriki]

Thanks man

 

[Dovey]

I use a very small and silky fish net designed for small aquariums of dwarf fresh water shrimp to move my very small true spiders. I let them walk up onto the net and then use it as a platform to move them around. Far less danger of harming a leg than if you move them in a cup like a tarantula. Strangely, they rarely jump.