A slight issue I need help with.

Drune

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 17, 2017
Messages
4
I caught a female wolf spider in my house at the end of February. I decided to keep her around and use her to help me get over my fear of spiders. Its working. I can let her crawl on my hands now without too much anxiety. First spider I've been able to do that with in a long time and I wanted to make sure I'm keeping her relatively well. I have her housed in a 1 gallon acrylic aquarium with a cheese cloth top, soil and leaf litter from around my house and lots of gnarled and curled birch bark. Anyway, 7 days ago I gave her a fairly large feed in the form of a (purposely disabled) backyard centipede. She carried it around for 3 days while eating it. Immediately after she burrowed into the dirt and surprise, she's carrying an egg sac now. Before this she was a very good feeder even off of tongs. Now, she just runs away from anything I try to give her. Even the smallest mealworms I have. Is this typical behavior? Will she eat when she's ready? Should I just wait it out and continue attempts every few days? I'm used to reptiles but its new territory for me with arachnids.
 

sdsnybny

Arachnogeek
Joined
Apr 29, 2015
Messages
1,330
Typically spiders wont eat when taking care of an egg sac
If you want them to hatch just leave her be except maybe to water. The more you disturb her the greater chance she might eat or abandon the egg sac.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,048
Typically spiders wont eat when taking care of an egg sac
Especially ranging hunter types. It's all about protecting that egg sack. With Lycosa, they take it a degree farther in being protective of the young by carrying them around after hatching.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,048
Could someone refresh my memory here. I believe I was reading about sparassids. During the egg production and protection time the mom produces an appetite suppression chemical where she won't eat until some time after the young disperse. Thus she won't go hunting the slings.
 

Drune

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 17, 2017
Messages
4
Thanks for the replies. I only tried twice before deciding not to disturb her further because she seemed so frantic to get away which was the total opposite of her reactions prior. She even ate a dead spider off tongs when I first caught her which surprised me. I only offered it out of curiosity. Anyway, I'm glad that my instinct to leave her alone was right but I wanted to confirm with people a bit more knowledgeable about spiders than I currently am. I'll leave her be save for lightly misting her enclosure for water and wait to see if the babies hatch out well. She is a beautiful little thing. She has this neat red striping down her center topline that starts dark at the top behind her head and gradually lightens towards the end of her abdomen. Her legs also have this same dark to light red striping. Her coloration was what made me decide to keep her in the first place other than working out my previous fear of spiders. I do have a genuine reason for that fear though. I was bitten by a brown recluse at 12. Only a small dose of venom but I was sick for quite a while. I was lucky the bite only ulcerated slightly but my entire leg went black an blue for a few weeks. We had to send the spider for ID to a museum because I live in Vermont. They believe it came up in the national guard vehicles returning from when the Mississippi River flooded so badly in the 90's. They used a back field behind our house for training. I think I'm still one of very few confirmed bites from a recluse in my state.
 

grimmjowls

Arachnoknight
Joined
May 1, 2016
Messages
204
Thanks for the replies. I only tried twice before deciding not to disturb her further because she seemed so frantic to get away which was the total opposite of her reactions prior. She even ate a dead spider off tongs when I first caught her which surprised me. I only offered it out of curiosity. Anyway, I'm glad that my instinct to leave her alone was right but I wanted to confirm with people a bit more knowledgeable about spiders than I currently am. I'll leave her be save for lightly misting her enclosure for water and wait to see if the babies hatch out well. She is a beautiful little thing. She has this neat red striping down her center topline that starts dark at the top behind her head and gradually lightens towards the end of her abdomen. Her legs also have this same dark to light red striping. Her coloration was what made me decide to keep her in the first place other than working out my previous fear of spiders. I do have a genuine reason for that fear though. I was bitten by a brown recluse at 12. Only a small dose of venom but I was sick for quite a while. I was lucky the bite only ulcerated slightly but my entire leg went black an blue for a few weeks. We had to send the spider for ID to a museum because I live in Vermont. They believe it came up in the national guard vehicles returning from when the Mississippi River flooded so badly in the 90's. They used a back field behind our house for training. I think I'm still one of very few confirmed bites from a recluse in my state.
Yikes! Good that you pulled through though.
Do you have a gnarly scar from it?

Yeah, the spider will run away to protect the sac she is carrying. Just enjoy nature without much responsibility while you can. ;)
 

Drune

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 17, 2017
Messages
4
I've got a fairly nice sized scar a bit bigger than a silver dollar but nothing like I've seen from more severe bites. Still, not something I ever want to repeat. Scarily enough, another woman here in Vermont recently reached into a bag of grapes and was bitten by a black widow. I found a widow egg sac on a bunch one time. Out of curiosity let them hatch and once I had a certain species ID I donated the entire lot to the guy that ID them for me since he raises and breeds them for making antivenom. Of course, both my incident and hers pale in comparison to a lady that was bitten by a Timber Rattlesnake when reaching into a brand new bag of dog food. Is it just me or are such incidences becoming more common rather than less??
 
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