Woodlouse spider eggsac info

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
I thoroughly debated whether or not to make this thread. I lost my adult (now known female) Dysdera crocata, and have around 30 eggs I now have to care for myself and hope I can properly care for. I made a very stupid mistake and I wanted to just forget about it and act like it never happened. But while the first part of the mistake was my own stupidity, the second part was because I didn't have the immediate resources to realize that I shouldn't have done what I did. So if I weren't to share this, it would be all the more likely that someone else would make this mistake as well. I think it's important to put this information out there so that anyone caring for Dysdera crocata don't make the same stupid mistake I did.

Roughly two weeks ago, I came across a massive and very angry Dysdera crocata and took it home. I set it up in a decent sized enclosure with a couple inches and substrate and two small isopods (one of which was eaten right away, the other of which disappeared shortly after), and left it completely alone since. The spider burrowed the first day shortly after eating, sealed off the burrow, and had been in it ever since.

Yesterday night after getting home from work, I made my first mistake. While checking on my other inverts, I for some stupid reason decided to dig out the burrow a little bit. I honestly don't know what I was thinking and can't think of any reason why the heck I would have ever done that. But I did. I came across a very thick patch of webbing, pulled it out, and continued my search. After realizing she must have burrowed even further into the enclosure than I thought, I left it alone because I finally realized I shouldn't be bothering her.

So I went back to mess around with some of the substrate I dug up and made my way back to the particularly thick, dirt covered webbing. I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but after playing with the webbing a bit, it tore open slightly and much to my surprise, I realized there was eggs inside! Not only did I stupidly dig up her burrow, I stole her eggsac and tore it open. :banghead::banghead::banghead:Now because the eggsac was torn open and she was nowhere to be seen in the enclosure, I thought the best move would be to make an incubator and set the eggs up in that to attempt to raise them myself (Probably also a stupid idea, but I think this is minor compared to having dug up the burrow in the first place). But it was already very late and I didn't have an actual plan, so I set the eggsac aside in a deli cup and went to bed.

Fast forward to earlier today, and I set up a scaled-down incubator like the ones used for tarantula eggs and got to work opening the sac. I couldn't seem to find the spot I ripped open yesterday, but didn't think much of it and went to tear a new hole in the sac. While tearing it open, suddenly the adult spider comes rushing out of the eggsac, off the incubator, off the table, and onto the ground where she scurried away to some unknown location.

I searched for about an hour but was unable to find her. I'm going to try looking again tonight, but am not optimistic.

MORALS OF THE STORY:

  1. Absolutely positively DO NOT dig up your spiders!!! I shouldn't need to say this and this is common knowledge, but everyone has their stupid moments (as very clearly pointed out here), and it's important not to forget such an important rule!! This whole scenario would have never happened, and I would never have been minus a pet had I actually been thinking.
  2. Apparently Dysdera crocata actually seal themselves inside the eggsac with their eggs, so if you find an eggsac but no spider (and they're fairly large eggsacs given the spider's size. That alone should've alluded to her being in there), LEAVE IT ALONE. She is in there with the eggs. I didn't see her the first time I opened the sac, and I can only assume the first hole I tore open was resales by her, explaining why I couldn't find it the next day. Until now, I've never known of a spider that sealed itself in the actual eggsac, and there was little information about these guys in general when I searched so this wasn't something I had known or expected when opening the sac.
Feel free to berate me for such a stupid mistake, as I certainly deserve it. But I would feel even worse if I didn't attempt to make it known about this unique habit that might not cross another keeper's mind when coming across a sac
 

Wesley Smith

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 3, 2017
Messages
195
Definitely not the first to make a stupid mistake like this. Not too long ago I nearly killed my ivory millipede because I needed to move her and didn’t want to wait. (I had what I thought was a mite problem but it wasn’t) luckily she pulled through but that’s not exactly how they all end, obvious by your story here.
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
Definitely not the first to make a stupid mistake like this. Not too long ago I nearly killed my ivory millipede because I needed to move her and didn’t want to wait. (I had what I thought was a mite problem but it wasn’t) luckily she pulled through but that’s not exactly how they all end, obvious by your story here.
I know I'm not the first person to make a mistake, and I definitely know I won't be the last. But this was two mistakes that could have been avoided if 1) I stopped to think for a minute that digging up burrowed spiders is bad, and 2) if I had known in the first place that the mother seals herself in the eggsac.

So while part of this was to remind people to leave burrows alone, this was mostly to inform people that may get this species or attempt breeding them about that unusual eggsac characteristic, so they don't think the mother abandoned the sac and open it trying to care for the eggs on their own, only to end up losing the female because they didn't know.
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
4,096
Apparently Dysdera crocata actually seal themselves inside the eggsac with their eggs, so if you find an eggsac but no spider (and they're fairly large eggsacs given the spider's size. That alone should've alluded to her being in there), LEAVE IT ALONE. She is in there with the eggs.
I didn't know this either.
 

draconisj4

Arachnobaron
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
455
Good to know, I don't have any true spiders and have been considering this species since I have an overabundance of isopods.
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
I didn't know this either.
Good to know, I don't have any true spiders and have been considering this species since I have an overabundance of isopods.
This is exactly why I shared this experience. I wouldn't have lost my female had that information been more available, so I want to make sure that information is out there in hopes that it will help someone else out
 

Smokehound714

Arachnoking
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
3,091
ive reared them a few times. they can be kept communally with space and burrowing room.

unlike other spiders, when Dysdera bump into one-another, they ritualistically wrestle by locking fangs like antlers and the loser simply backs away.. this is regardless of gender, females do it too.

no sense in true fighting with those huge fangs, both would die lol
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
ive reared them a few times. they can be kept communally with space and burrowing room.

unlike other spiders, when Dysdera bump into one-another, they ritualistically wrestle by locking fangs like antlers and the loser simply backs away.. this is regardless of gender, females do it too.

no sense in true fighting with those huge fangs, both would die lol
If I do wind up with any babies from the sac, I'll keep that in mind. Unfortunately, I suspect I'm going to lose everything in the sac too. I set up an incubator like they do for tarantulas (this was my first time attempting this as well), and at first there was definitely development in about half the eggs. But I think my inexperience led to mites getting attracted to the setup and just about every developing egg has been eaten. I just took out the maybe 3 eggs that were left (they've made no development that I can see so I don't even think they're viable) and the single remaining egg with leg development in hopes that I can somehow save them.

If nothing else, I can learn from this and help others learn from my mistakes.
 

WildSpider

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
465
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been hoping to try and raise some D. crocata and I think this information will come in handy.
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been hoping to try and raise some D. crocata and I think this information will come in handy.
I sincerely hope it does. They're such neat spiders
 

Smokehound714

Arachnoking
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
3,091
If I do wind up with any babies from the sac, I'll keep that in mind. Unfortunately, I suspect I'm going to lose everything in the sac too. I set up an incubator like they do for tarantulas (this was my first time attempting this as well), and at first there was definitely development in about half the eggs. But I think my inexperience led to mites getting attracted to the setup and just about every developing egg has been eaten. I just took out the maybe 3 eggs that were left (they've made no development that I can see so I don't even think they're viable) and the single remaining egg with leg development in hopes that I can somehow save them.

If nothing else, I can learn from this and help others learn from my mistakes.
No incubator needed. this species prefers cool weather. just keep them with mom for a while, she will take care of them and will share her meals with them. unlike other spiders, they carefully groom the eggs inside the brood chamber, the only other spider i can think of that does that is Olios giganteus.
Keep in mind, this is a slow-growing species and the young will take about 2.5 years to mature.
 

PidderPeets

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
1,336
No incubator needed. this species prefers cool weather. just keep them with mom for a while, she will take care of them and will share her meals with them. unlike other spiders, they carefully groom the eggs inside the brood chamber, the only other spider i can think of that does that is Olios giganteus.
Keep in mind, this is a slow-growing species and the young will take about 2.5 years to mature.

Thanks for the advice. I do appreciate it, but the issue was that I had lost the female so she wasn't present to care for the eggs. Hence the need for the incubator. I explain the whole predicament in my first post.

Unfortunately I did lose the entire sac, and the mother is still at large in my room. I'm hoping that she'll be able to sustain herself on any stray feeders and various other insects and maybe I'll be able to find her as I clean my room.

I do appreciate the tips though and I think a lot of it will come in handy
 

WildSpider

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
465
Thanks for the advice. I do appreciate it, but the issue was that I had lost the female so she wasn't present to care for the eggs. Hence the need for the incubator. I explain the whole predicament in my first post.

Unfortunately I did lose the entire sac, and the mother is still at large in my room. I'm hoping that she'll be able to sustain herself on any stray feeders and various other insects and maybe I'll be able to find her as I clean my room.

I do appreciate the tips though and I think a lot of it will come in handy
Sorry you lost the sac. Hope you can find the mother and wish you luck on the next batch.

I hope you don't mind me asking here but this makes me wonder, with many animals, you can give the babies to another mother and she will raise them (rabbits, chickens, etc). I wonder if this can be done with spiders as well. I had a mix up before with my spiders and I ended up switching mothers at one point. They seemed to adopt the new sacs though while they were with them although they were not with them for too long. If this would work, I would guess the substitute spider would have to also be a mother currently or at least gravid. I should also clarify that I'm thinking of mothers that are the same species.
 
Last edited:

Villagecreep

Arachnosquire
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Messages
62
Sorry you lost the sac. Hope you can find the mother and wish you luck on the next batch.

I hope you don't mind me asking here but this makes me wonder, with many animals, you can give the babies to another mother and she will raise them (rabbits, chickens, etc). I wonder if this can be done with spiders as well. I had a mix up before with my spiders and I ended up switching mothers at one point. They seemed to adopt the new sacs though while they were with them although they were not with them for too long. If this would work, I would guess the substitute spider would have to also be a mother currently or at least gravid. I should also clarify that I'm thinking of mothers that are the same species.
same thing has happened to me
 

mantisfan101

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
1,755
Bruh I’m in the exact same position with m damon medius, I kept checking up on her and now she dropepd her eggsac. Worse, since it was sorta dangling off of her abdomen it bent it a little bit so now i have bigger fish to fry :/
 

Bug master

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
9
Definitely not the first to make a stupid mistake like this. Not too long ago I nearly killed my ivory millipede because I needed to move her and didn’t want to wait. (I had what I thought was a mite problem but it wasn’t) luckily she pulled through but that’s not exactly how they all end, obvious by your story here.
Hey man, I’m sorry about this but you posting this wasn’t a mistake! A lot of people here have just learned something new and now we know because of you thanks man!
 
Top