Bean weevils

[TheHound]

Any of you guys feed these?

For my versicolor sling who does not appear to eat much, I've been going with pre-killed food so far - chopped up mealworm or locust parts, so as to not be too big or intimidating for him (he's 1.5cm or so); having googled it I can see there are about 10 million discussion threads on this site and elsewhere about picky versicolor slings, so I know it can be a thing with this species. I also know that the chances are sometimes they are eating bits of what I put in, but because they don't eat it all I can't really tell either way.

But still, I thought I'd try some live prey, see how that goes - maybe witness some hunting. The red runners I found were too big, but was recommended these weevils <edit>, so have ordered some. Two fairly general questions:

1. Should I stick them on the ground, or on the leaves? The versicolor has only done little bits of webbing here and there, so there's no obvious webbing spot to put it on.

2. I believe they are vegetarian, but presumably I should remove after a day or two if uneaten still? If so, any good methods for this, or is it just a matter of getting skillful with tweezer grabbing? Seems like this would be challenging in a little arboreal enclosure with leaves etc all over the place, but if that's what I have to do then I will give it my best.

 

[marsdex]

Were you planning on presenting the weevils pre-killed or live? My experience was that they were very fast, and not easy to grab with tongs. So after cooling them down in the fridge I quickly opened the culture, caught a couple in a small cup, and put the lid back on both containers. Once at the spider enclosure, I tapped them in from the small cup.

I had a versicolor sling who would never come down from his web to eat, and who was also too small to be fed full-size prey items. The bean weevils are very active and can climb smooth surfaces which I figured might be a good thing because it would grab my spider's attention. The sling did in fact manage to catch and kill it eventually, but not without some difficulty. The weevils are fast and crunchy. As in, they seem to have a tough exoskeleton.

Anyway, I tried again and put two in, but wasn't able to find them when I checked on my sling. I found one a day later in another terrarium of mine, and the other walking around on my backpack. Turns out they were small enough to get out through the ventilation holes. Which is not a good thing because they can be a household pest! I ended up giving the rest of the culture to a friend who keeps dart frogs.

Unfortunately, though I did have limited success with cricket legs placed on his webbing, my sling later died in a bad molt. I say to try the weevils since you've ordered them and it probably won't hurt unless they escape.

 

[TheHound]

I was planning feeding live - I think it may elicit a response from the sling that way. Cooling them down is a good idea; I used to do that with locusts but stopped bothering as it never really seemed that necessary. With smaller, more fiddly creatures it may be more useful, though that's a good point to consider about them escaping - will have to see how big they are compared to the ventilation holes.

As things stand, I'm just not sure how much it's eaten since I got it. It may be fine, as I mentioned in my OP, and they are munching on bits before I remove them, although it didn't appear to touch the last meal I put in (a mealworm segment on a leaf and a locust abdomen on the floor, to try and increase the odds), even though I tried to make sure the sizes were not too intimidating.

Will definitely give the weevils a go, and maybe monitor closely when I do. From your comments it sounds like getting one back out of the enclosure if the spider doesn't go for it is going to be a job, but I'm sure I can find a way to manage it.