# Anyone kept or keeping wolf spiders?



## kosh

Has anyone kept or are you currently keeping wolf spiders as pets?

I was just curious because I have had to "dispose" of at least 3 juvenile wolf spiders in my house in as many weeks.
They weren't full grown, I would say they were about 3/4 to 1 inch in size, but I was wondering if they can be kept as pets like we keep tarantulas?

Will they readily take crickets?  What kind of lifespan do they have? Any experiences anyone can share about these "scary" little buggers?  They scare the crap outta me because they usually suprise/startle/scare me when they suddenly appear in my house.  To me, they almost seem semi aggressive when they sorta jump at you when you try to catch them.  I may try to capture the next one and see if i can raise one up to adulthood if this is feasible.

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## luther

Try the Other Archnids forum.  Wolf spiders are not tarantulas.
Here's a link.
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/forumdisplay.php?f=12

btw, I have a nice, big house spider in a mason jar that I feed drowsy flies to.  They make good pets.  I've be trying a small cricket tonight, 'cos I just bought some for my mantids.


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## New Guy

When my son said he wanted a tarantula, I told him to start reading as much as he could and then we would catch a wolf for him to take care of prior to getting a T.  He had it for several months and it even laid an egg sac while he had it.  It grew pretty fast and was an interesting spider to keep.  We fed it crickets and meal worms which it never turned down.

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## Brian S

I have kept several wolf spiders from time to time. Keep them like you would a tarantula of the same size. They will take crickets, grasshoppers etc. If you get one of the larger ones you can feed it larger food items like katydids. Hope this helps

Brian

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## protheus

kosh said:
			
		

> Has anyone kept or are you currently keeping wolf spiders as pets?


Yeah, they're really jumpy, but a lot of fun.  Short life spans, and once they're the size that you found, they may not have more than a year or so to live.  They eat anything you feed them, more or less -- don't try an orange, though -- and they don't really climb well, so it's easy to keep them where they belong.

Chris

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## heyjeyniceid

yes, I keep the Giant Wolf Spiders that are found around the desserts here.  The biggest one Ive ever had had a legspan of a bit more than 3".   

they eat almost anything you give them.

I keep mine on the natural soil that I find them in which is usually just fine dirt/dust with a bit of rocks and twigs.  From the three that Ive kept, none have made there characteristic funnel tube.


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## ShaunHolder

Yep. It depends on the genus, but some of them love to burrow. If it is in fact a burrowing wolf spider make sure to give them tons of space to burrow. The lifespan for females is around two years, males die shortly after maturity. 

The take crickets readily. You know when they are full because they will kill the food and not eat it. Good luck and let us know if you obtain one.


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## Invert Nerd

most of the wolf spiders around my area are R. rabida (rabid wolf spiders) they are monsters. they do prettygood in captivity


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## pandinus

luther said:
			
		

> Try the Other Archnids forum.  Wolf spiders are not tarantulas.
> Here's a link.
> http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/forumdisplay.php?f=12
> 
> btw, I have a nice, big house spider in a mason jar that I feed drowsy flies to.  They make good pets.  I've be trying a small cricket tonight, 'cos I just bought some for my mantids.


this IS the other arachnids forum!

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## Brian S

pandinus said:
			
		

> this IS the other arachnids forum!


It was in the tarantula forum and was moved here!


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## kosh

I saw one outside on my patio last night but I opted not to catch it.  Then, this morning there was another one in my bathroom when I went to take a shower so I caught that one and have it in a jar with some of the same substrate I keep my T's on (50/50 peat/vermiculite).  

I don't know how to tell the difference between the sexes but some of them I see seem to have more distinct markings on the abdomen and those are also "skinnier" than the other ones I see that have a darker abdomen and are a little fatter.  The one I decided to catch was one of the darker fatter ones, so for whatever reason I guess it would be cool if it was female.  Do these guys darken up before a moult like some T's?  Could I be seeing premoult and non-premoult spiders in my yard or could the coloring be the difference between the sexes?

I have noticed that all of the wolf spiders I have been seeing lately around the house are all similar in size (approx. 3/4 inch) so I wonder if they are all from the same egg sack.  I know nothing of the population density of wolf spiders in my yard but surely it is no coincidence that all of them I see are almost identical in size at this point.  The last big one I saw was about 2 months ago and it was in the little chamber out in my yard where the water meter is.  It was one of the fatter dark ones and I shooed it out without killing it.  The week before I saw that big one in the water meter area, I killed a large black widow spider in the same area so it must be a favorite spider hang out in my yard.

Anyone got any tips on humidity and temp requirements for the wolfies in my area?  I am assuming that since they live outside and inside my house then just keeping them with no special care, other than a little misting every now and then will be fine since they are native to my climate.  How often will these little buggers eat? How often will they moult?  Do they burrow? It seems like they wander alot so I assume they are not burrowers. Oh well, I guess I have rambled on enough in this post so I will get back to work.  Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.



Oh yeah, Pandinus, I originally started this thread in the Tarantula forum and a kind moderator moved it here for me!

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## Stormcrow

If they're not burrowing species, a nice plastic shoe box will suffice with hole punched on either side of the container itself, I usually use a ruler and space the ventilation holes an inch apart with an icepick. Makes for a really neat and orderly container. Or you can punch holes in the lid. If it is a burrowing species than you want a storage container of greater depth to allow the spider to make a burrow. Substrate of choice would be a brick of crushed coconut shells. These containers will maintain humidity all their own combined a heatpad set against the side or atop. If the heatpad dries the substrate, then liberally mist with a water bottle. These spiders will take food frequently and a large shallow bottle cap will act fine as a waterdish. Concerning their feeding habits, experiment because the Wolf Spider will simply ignore the crickets or kill it and eat very little usually means it's had enough feed for a few days or a week.


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## kosh

One of my T slings didn't eat its dinner so I took the very small cricket and threw it in with the wolf spider and CHOMP!!! It didnt waste any time attacking the cricket and it ate it pretty fast too.....do these guys have better digestive fluids than a T??
The wolf spider is pretty fat now....I wonder how often this thing needs to eat??

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## Stormcrow

Wolf Spiders are simply very aggressive and their predacious pounce is very impressive. Yes, I would feed the Wolf Spider frequently, 1-3 crickets a week depending on the individual's appetite. Removing any remains or live prey items afterwards.

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## Tarangela

I caught one on my porch about a month ago!!!  She is the darker colored one, and so cool!!

I love watching her run, or attack food!  She will attack anything I put in there, w/ more agressiveness than most of my T's.  She will almost roll over she attatcks the cricket so fast!!

If you even breathe near her, she basically teleports to the other side of the cage.  Their speed is simply amazing!!  I hope she lays a sac   I will let her keep it.  As last time I took a sac away from one, and she was dead the next day....I suppose she grieved her little self to death 

BUT anyway, they are very cool to keep as pets, and I will keep her as long as I can

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## mactans

I am always elated when I find a Wolf Spider, there not as common here as some of the locales of the other board members. One of my favorite inverts, last one I had was a large Hogna ssp. used throw itself at the prey with the legs splayed back, very aggressive.

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## kosh

came home from work tonight and was checking on all my bugs....
the little wolf spider has dug a little burrow and is sitting at the bottom of it with an eggsack!!!

i thought for sure this spider was a juvie.....
do these spiders mature at a very small size or did i perhaps catch some small species of wolf spider?

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## kosh

well i guess my wolf spider experiment will end this evening when i get off of work.....i surely do not want a wolf spider with a bunch of babies inside my house so i will take her and her eggsack and turn them loose in the back yard....

btw...i caught another wolf spider in the house Sunday morning....it was a pretty good size (at least 1" or a fraction larger) and was one of the darker ones and it was prety fat....if these spideys are females and they keep finding their way into my house, I wonder if they are gravid and looking for a place to hide and crawling up under the walls from the outside only to meet their fate at my hands inside!?!?  just a guess since most of the ones i catch inside are the darker ones and the one darker one i caught dropped a sack a couple of days later...

I guess i will have to get the Cook's Pest Control guy to spray the outside perimeter of my house extra good this month because I dont like these spiders "suprising" me in my home on a regular basis....i have been catching at least 1 or 2 a week inside the house...dont get me wrong...they are interesting and they serve their purpose in the food chain but i feel more comfortable with them doing their thing outside my house....i prefer any spiders inside the house to be in a controled and captive environment like my T's...

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## boxy

They're great spiders, fearsome indeed. Has anyone seen a Wolf Spider with babies on her back? Or is it the male that carries them? I forget  

That pic up there from this page.

They're the most visible spider around here under logs and rocks. I don't mess with them though, too quick, and those fangs look like they'd hurt!  

​I've noticed a small red spot on the sides of their head... near the mouth. Does anyone know what this is?


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## David_F

boxy said:
			
		

> They're great spiders, fearsome indeed. Has anyone seen a Wolf Spider with babies on her back?  Or is it the male that carries them? I forget


Hey Boxy,

Actually, I had a female wolf spider a while back that I caught while she was carrying the eggsac.  It finally hatched out and she carried them around on her back for about a week.  This was a smaller species; no more than 3/4" as adult.  The babies were TINY!  Smaller than a pinhead.  I ended up letting them all go not long after they dispersed.


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## boxy

Cool. I remember someone telling me that they have been known to highjack other females with spiderlings on their backs of their babies. Something about taking the new babies on board so that they can be used as food for the others.


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## Roach

Ok, now, we've come to believe that this is a wolf spider, but I'm not 100%.  We've had it a few months now.  I think it was late June that we caught it.  Since then, there have been three eggsacs.  The latest coming this week.  It's kinda frustarting at this point.  The little ones aren't so easy to set free.  

This may not be a wolf spider though.  There's a picture here:  http://www.geocities.com/zipperpig.geo/spido3.gif

She's pretty big.  But I don't know a ton about these things.  All I know is that, minus the sac, she eats like crazy.  We can put in multiple crickets a day and she will tear them up.  

She's seems pretty cool with us.  We can open the enclosure and she runs right to the eating spot.  But lately, she's constantly carrying the baby ball around.  In that case, she doesn't do much.

That's about all I know at the moment.

Roach

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## xanadu1015

I just caught one in my basement and she is doing very well. I laid some fake leaves down and she is quite happy curling up underneath or in the leaves themselves. This female is dark grayish brown in color, no real marks as far as I can tell and she's about an inch in length. She's very impressive when it comes to hunting crickets and very fast. I have her in a deli type cup with the silk leaves, she seems happy and healthy.


Laura


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## RedKat007

I caught a wolfy about 1 to 1 1/2 inches a couple weeks ago, and now she's got an eggsac. She was really fat for about a week so I didn't feed her and now she's really skinny and I've been giving her lots of food, but she hasn't touched it for hours. Is there something wrong or is she somehow not hungry? Anyone got any ideas?


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## Ratmosphere

RedKat007 said:


> I caught a wolfy about 1 to 1 1/2 inches a couple weeks ago, and now she's got an eggsac. She was really fat for about a week so I didn't feed her and now she's really skinny and I've been giving her lots of food, but she hasn't touched it for hours. Is there something wrong or is she somehow not hungry? Anyone got any ideas?


Probably just not hungry. Give her a few more days before you try again.


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## Ungoliant

RedKat007 said:


> I caught a wolfy about 1 to 1 1/2 inches a couple weeks ago, and now she's got an eggsac. She was really fat for about a week so I didn't feed her and now she's really skinny and I've been giving her lots of food, but she hasn't touched it for hours. Is there something wrong or is she somehow not hungry? Anyone got any ideas?


When I had a wolf spider, she wouldn't eat while she had her sac.

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## RedKat007

Alright, thanks. One more thing, does anyone know approximately how many babies wolf spiders have? I've been looking it up, but I can't seem to find anything...


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## RedKat007

Alright, so it's been a few days since I last tried to feed her, and I put a live insect in and now she has been hiding in her burrow for the past few days. Does anyone know what's going on?


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## Venom1080

If it has a sac, you should let it go..


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## RedKat007

But...I can't just let her go like that, I've had her too long to just cast her out into the cold. Plus, it's almost winter, so it'd probably be an unfortunate time to set her free, as she probably wouldn't be able to burrow into the hard ground and would most likely freeze to death.


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## darkness975

RedKat007 said:


> But...I can't just let her go like that, I've had her too long to just cast her out into the cold. Plus, it's almost winter, so it'd probably be an unfortunate time to set her free, as she probably wouldn't be able to burrow into the hard ground and would most likely freeze to death.


The eggsack is likely what is preventing it from wanting to feed.


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## RedKat007

Alright, so now it's been a long time since she last ate, and she just recently came back out of her burrow from about 10 days in there(I'm not sure why she was in there so long). There are some dead bugs that I put in there for her(they were fresh when I first put them in but they have since decayed) and she still has not eaten. However, I was a little confused about how she looked the exact same going into her burrow as coming out. She did not seem to decrease in size at all. Also, I've only been feeding her black crickets that I've caught, and I was wondering if when she started eating again, if I could feed her the brown crickets from the local pet store. Anyone have any opinions about this?


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## Tia B

I love my wolf spiders, they're very fun to keep. I don't consider them a "starter" spider or a precursor to tarantulas, they have their own merits. I currently only have two, one is a sling that I've raised myself from my last egg sac and the other is an adult female who just molted.


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## Tia B

By the way, wolf spiders have like 30-60 slings in each sac in my experience.

And I think feeding pet store crickets would work well when she starts eating again.


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## RedKat007

Mine just recently had it's egg sac hatch and she's dropped it on the ground, but I don't know whether to take it out or leave it. Does anyone know what I should do?


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## Tia B

RedKat007 said:


> Mine just recently had it's egg sac hatch and she's dropped it on the ground, but I don't know whether to take it out or leave it. Does anyone know what I should do?


If it's hatched and she placed it on the ground and is tending to it, then she's helping the hatchling slings out and onto her back. If she's not by it and you see no slings at all, the egg sac has been abandoned and likely won't hatch at all. It may never have been viable.


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## Tia B

If the slings are completely out and the egg sac is just sitting there, you can take it out no problem, as long as you don't disturb the mom too much.


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## Tia B

Tia B said:


> I've raised slings before. They stay on the mother and eat what she eats for a while, so make sure she eats during that time. After they get off the mother, they will spread throughout the tank. Fruit flies are a good food source at that point. Make sure, and I cannot stress this enough, that the container the mother and slings are in is well sealed. The little buggers will go everywhere if you let them. If you're worried about escapees, then put small mesh over any openings. Unlike the mother, the babies CAN somewhat climb glass.
> 
> They're a little better at not cannibalizing than tarantulas, but when you decide to separate, I suggest using small condiment cups with holes poked in the top. There will be a lot of babies, but you will suffer some losses. The babies are somewhat less hardy than tarantula slings, so some will likely not make it through bad molts.
> Make sure they have some sort of access to water because they dessicate easily. My slings liked drinking water droplets off the walls more than from any sort of dish. Try not to make their enclosure too humid, though.


This is my experience raising slings. I posted it on a different thread. I suggest you separate them as soon as they get off their mother's back if you want a higher survival rate. Good luck!


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## RedKat007

Thanks! I've only got about 10 to 15 slings at the moment, and they hatched about 4 days ago. However, it's almost winter now, so how will I find any fruit flies for the babies? Is there something else that they can eat or is buying something an option?


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## Tia B

RedKat007 said:


> Thanks! I've only got about 10 to 15 slings at the moment, and they hatched about 4 days ago. However, it's almost winter now, so how will I find any fruit flies for the babies? Is there something else that they can eat or is buying something an option?


You could buy fruit flies. Most chain pet stores sell jars of them. Really, you just have to find prey that's small enough for them to take down. Any small insect would do.


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## Towerchick

kosh said:


> I saw one outside on my patio last night but I opted not to catch it.  Then, this morning there was another one in my bathroom when I went to take a shower so I caught that one and have it in a jar with some of the same substrate I keep my T's on (50/50 peat/vermiculite).
> 
> I don't know how to tell the difference between the sexes but some of them I see seem to have more distinct markings on the abdomen and those are also "skinnier" than the other ones I see that have a darker abdomen and are a little fatter.  The one I decided to catch was one of the darker fatter ones, so for whatever reason I guess it would be cool if it was female.  Do these guys darken up before a moult like some T's?  Could I be seeing premoult and non-premoult spiders in my yard or could the coloring be the difference between the sexes?
> 
> I have noticed that all of the wolf spiders I have been seeing lately around the house are all similar in size (approx. 3/4 inch) so I wonder if they are all from the same egg sack.  I know nothing of the population density of wolf spiders in my yard but surely it is no coincidence that all of them I see are almost identical in size at this point.  The last big one I saw was about 2 months ago and it was in the little chamber out in my yard where the water meter is.  It was one of the fatter dark ones and I shooed it out without killing it.  The week before I saw that big one in the water meter area, I killed a large black widow spider in the same area so it must be a favorite spider hang out in my yard.
> 
> Anyone got any tips on humidity and temp requirements for the wolfies in my area?  I am assuming that since they live outside and inside my house then just keeping them with no special care, other than a little misting every now and then will be fine since they are native to my climate.  How often will these little buggers eat? How often will they moult?  Do they burrow? It seems like they wander alot so I assume they are not burrowers. Oh well, I guess I have rambled on enough in this post so I will get back to work.  Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh yeah, Pandinus, I originally started this thread in the Tarantula forum and a kind moderator moved it here for me!


@kosh- I thought that the sex could be distinguished by looking at the pedipalps?

I recently caught 17 wolf spiders in a two day period in my basement.  No joke.  Being that they were the same size and caught along the same wall spanning over two rooms, I assume that they were siblings as well.  Anyhow, in regards to the egg sac prior to winter, if I'm not mistaken, wolf spiders lay sacs in the winter which will hatch 2-3 weeks later, but the babies stay in the egg sac over the winter and emerge in the spring.


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## Veles

Towerchick said:


> @kosh- I thought that the sex could be distinguished by looking at the pedipalps?
> 
> I recently caught 17 wolf spiders in a two day period in my basement.  No joke.  Being that they were the same size and caught along the same wall spanning over two rooms, I assume that they were siblings as well.  Anyhow, in regards to the egg sac prior to winter, if I'm not mistaken, wolf spiders lay sacs in the winter which will hatch 2-3 weeks later, but the babies stay in the egg sac over the winter and emerge in the spring.


most wolf spiders carry their egg sacs with themselves, younglings hitch a ride on their mothers back too


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## Towerchick

Veles said:


> most wolf spiders carry their egg sacs with themselves, younglings hitch a ride on their mothers back too


Oh yes, wolf spiders are best known for the mothers carrying their babies on their back. (Which is terrifying for those who don't like spiders and think they're smashing one...only to see that "one" burst outwards as a series of tiny baby spiders!). But, as far as what wolf spiders do with egg sacs that are laid during winter- I swear that I'd read somewhere that the egg sac (along with the spiders themselves) undergoes a  winterization/hibernation type of thing and although they "hatch", they don't emerge from the sac until it's warm enough to do so. Which, once they do, they'd hop a ride on mamma's back.
I'm going to poke around the internet and see what I can find.  I could be mistaken.

I stand corrected.  It is OTHER SPIDERS, not the wolf spider that does the egg sac hibernation thing.



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