Advice sought for Beginner True Spider keeper

SpiderchickLisaHale

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 7, 2021
Messages
3
Hello fellow Spider lovers.
I adore my 8-legged friends and have kept many in captivity. I had a wonderful male grass spider that lived out his natural life, fat and happy. I have a Steatoda triangulosa who came crawling through my kitchen on Christmas eve. Rather than throw her out in the snow, we put together a nice little hide for her that she has webbed up nicely. She loves her fruit flies. My main question has to do with my wolf spider sling. My husband knows that the H. carolinenisis is my favorite of all the true spiders and I've always wanted one. He bought me a sling. I set this tiny, tiny spood up in a habitat with about an inch of substrate, and a cotton ball with water for moisture and fed flightless fruit flies every other day. For reference the sling was less than a centimeter long (body only).
We got Glitter (the wolfie) in mid-January. Long story short. It died last week. At first I was hoping it was molting, no. He stayed like that for several several days. He was gone.
I was devastated. I don't know if I didn't feed enough. Didn't have enough water? He was just too small or what. This was my first wolfie. I also keep a T. vagans named Sparklebutt who is doing so well. She just put on her new dress last week.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
We don’t know what you did or didn’t do wrong either. Perhaps it died of natural causes they don’t all make it.

I wouldn’t have used a cotton ball though.
 

SpiderchickLisaHale

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 7, 2021
Messages
3
We don’t know what you did or didn’t do wrong either. Perhaps it died of natural causes they don’t all make it.

I wouldn’t have used a cotton ball though.
What would you have used? I didn't want to put a dish in there, he was so tiny. And I did spritz the sides of the terrarium to give little water droplets. Would another delivery system for water have been better?
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
What would you have used? I didn't want to put a dish in there, he was so tiny. And I did spritz the sides of the terrarium to give little water droplets. Would another delivery system for water have been better?
I would have used a bottle cap
 

Scp682

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 13, 2020
Messages
227
What would you have used? I didn't want to put a dish in there, he was so tiny. And I did spritz the sides of the terrarium to give little water droplets. Would another delivery system for water have been better?
For moisture for such a small sling i would do what you did and keep the substrate moist (not too wet) by gently spraying it every few days to a week. They will also drink from droplets on the side. I know wolf slings are everywhere outside this time of year now and they seem especially be on moist parts of the ground (near puddles and such). Depending on your area you could probably find another pretty easily. Wolf spiders are everywhere. Probably on't get as big but it's worth a try.
 

SpiderchickLisaHale

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 7, 2021
Messages
3
For moisture for such a small sling i would do what you did and keep the substrate moist (not too wet) by gently spraying it every few days to a week. They will also drink from droplets on the side. I know wolf slings are everywhere outside this time of year now and they seem especially be on moist parts of the ground (near puddles and such). Depending on your area you could probably find another pretty easily. Wolf spiders are everywhere. Probably on't get as big but it's worth a try.
It will probably be bigger than this guy if I catch one on my own. But thanks for the vote of confidence. I live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I don't think I'm gonna find a Carolina Wolfie in the wild, but I do know that we have others. Wish me luck.
 

Penn

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Messages
103
It will probably be bigger than this guy if I catch one on my own. But thanks for the vote of confidence. I live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I don't think I'm gonna find a Carolina Wolfie in the wild, but I do know that we have others. Wish me luck.
There are carolinas in Wisconsin according to what I've read, and I will be going out to Boscobel sometime in the summer to try my luck. I was out there a few years back and I saw some giant wolfies, but that was before I knew much about narrowing them down to the proper genus.

I'm over in the Milwaukee area and I will be keeping my eyes peeled for them. I definitely recommend going out at night and looking for them with a headlamp. So far all I have seen in the city are Trochosa sp.
 

Penn

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Messages
103
You rock!
Oh I had no clue bugguide had an advanced search! You just changed my life lmao.

I was using iNaturalist to see what we had around here, but bugguide is a treasure trove since it has been around for so long and there is so much data.

Thanks!
 

ErinM31

Arachnogoddess
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Feb 25, 2016
Messages
1,217
Spider slings seem to be very difficult to raise, at least in my limited experience (Kukulcania and Hogna species). I have raised tarantula sling successfully and kept a variety of spiders that were wild-caught either mature or a few molts from being so. I had the above species hatch under my care and kept them similar to as I would small slings. The wolf spider slings seemed to thrive for a time but eventually every last one died and failed molt was the cause when I could determine it. I thought it was something I’d missed it their diet, that perhaps I’d over-relied on fruit flies so I made sure they had springtails and would meticulously dice up meal worms and then promptly remove the remains. I made sure they had regular access to water (distilled). Temperature was fairly constant, 22-25C. I still have no idea what I did wrong.

Condolences on your loss! :sad:
 

Scp682

Arachnoknight
Joined
Oct 13, 2020
Messages
227
Spider slings seem to be very difficult to raise, at least in my limited experience (Kukulcania and Hogna species). I have raised tarantula sling successfully and kept a variety of spiders that were wild-caught either mature or a few molts from being so. I had the above species hatch under my care and kept them similar to as I would small slings. The wolf spider slings seemed to thrive for a time but eventually every last one died and failed molt was the cause when I could determine it. I thought it was something I’d missed it their diet, that perhaps I’d over-relied on fruit flies so I made sure they had springtails and would meticulously dice up meal worms and then promptly remove the remains. I made sure they had regular access to water (distilled). Temperature was fairly constant, 22-25C. I still have no idea what I did wrong.

Condolences on your loss! :sad:
It does seem like most true spiders produce a lot more eggs with a lot more weaker individuals. This along with the fact they have significantly shorter lifespans and are more focused on reproducing leads to quantity over quality. There just seem to be more individuals destined to not make it, most likely they end up being first meals for the strongest individuals increasing their survival chances so it all works out in nature.
 
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