AmphibianAddict
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2018
- Messages
- 45
So, the staple food for my small inverts and spiders are flies and they’re kinda hard to catch, do y’all have any simpler ways to catch them other than just grabbing them?
Good points . One place flies like to land a lot of times is on the side of a building (like your house) in the sunshine in the evening when the sun is going down.It's pretty easy if you have a place where a lot are landing.
Those are the best. Really juicy when they are well fed. Excellent suggestion friend. Wax worm moths work too, but they are a little slippery because of their wing scales. There really is no good substitute for a wild caught flesh fly though. Deer flies are great too. Most of the flies related to horseflies are chuck full of nutrients for spiders. T's love huge pond caught dragonflies. Personally, I find those big black field cricket females keep most of my spiders well satiated for weeks sometimes, depending on the size of the spider and it's metabolic rate. Orb weavers will eat just about anything that gets caught in their webs, but they are pretty vulnerable to wasps due to their 2 dimensional webs. Widows on the other hand, are by far the least picky when it comes to food. Very opportunistic when hungry. I've seen many of my small 4th instars take on crickets 3 times as big and probably 20 times heavier. Just depends on the species you have, so my advice to you is to experiment with everything.If you have a bait and tackle (fishing) store nearby you can buy blow fly maggots for a couple of bucks. I've never intentionally turned them into flies (I feed them to smaller centipedes and scorpions) but some get lost in the substrate and pupate into adults. I imagine if you put some in a bigger size deli cup with moist sub and maybe some wet cat/dog food you would get a lot of flies.
My worry with wild caught feeders is pesticides, of which there is way too much floating around out there.Those are the best. Really juicy when they are well fed. Excellent suggestion friend. Wax worm moths work too, but they are a little slippery because of their wing scales. There really is no good substitute for a wild caught flesh fly though. Deer flies are great too. Most of the flies related to horseflies are chuck full of nutrients for spiders. T's love huge pond caught dragonflies. Personally, I find those big black field cricket females keep most of my spiders well satiated for weeks sometimes, depending on the size of the spider and it's metabolic rate. Orb weavers will eat just about anything that gets caught in their webs, but they are pretty vulnerable to wasps due to their 2 dimensional webs. Widows on the other hand, are by far the least picky when it comes to food. Very opportunistic when hungry. I've seen many of my small 4th instars take on crickets 3 times as big and probably 20 times heavier. Just depends on the species you have, so my advice to you is to experiment with everything.
Fortunately where I live, pesticides are not used very often. You do have a point though. You need to be very choosy on what you feed your babies, but in the span that I have been feeding spiders, and catching them, I have had no encounters where the food poisoned my spider through eating it. I have however, experienced what nematodes can do to a T, so now I prefer to do a little health check on the prey items before I feed them to my babies. Plump bellies and spry activity are good signs to look for. Avoid any slow moving insects that are easy to catch. True's seem to be pretty tolerant to wild caught feeders. Mygalies, not so much.My worry with wild caught feeders is pesticides, of which there is way too much floating around out there.