Caught a jumping spider

[moonlightsonata]

I caught what I beleave is a jumping sider. I'll get some pictures. Do jumping spiders bite? Poisionous? Are they aggresseve or do they just hang out in your house? Please let me know.

 

[Fini]

Congrats on your jumper.

They can bite, but I think they have to be provoked. I don't believe the venom is significant, but you never know about allergies.

Make sure you give it some stuff to jump on.

 

[Scorpendra]

poisonous? do you plan on eating it?

 

[Malkavian]

poisonous? do you plan on eating it?

Witty.


Moonlight- I'm not sure any jumpers are big enough to actually inflict a bite. If so I certainly wouldnt' be concerned with their venom

 

[moonlightsonata]

What do they eat?

What do I feed this thing? flies? ants?

 

[Anubis77]

I fed mine flightless fruit flies. I guess pinheads may work as well.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Flies small crickets... Web using spiders... smaller jumpers -however this isnt always a 100% thing sometimes they get along - give it a nice large roaming area [compared to its size] aswell as at least one cornered away area -much like poecilithoria [spelling] set up. It will bed night mats to hide in -depending on species-

 

[ilovebugs]

yea, feed it pretty much anything smaller than itself. if it's big enough, they seem to LOVE house flys. If I've seen one, I've seen a hundred of them toating off with a fly in it's fangs.

 

[Godzirrrra]

I fed the one i caught the other night a tiny pinhead. He/she jumped all over it in a blink of an eye.

Chris

 

[Czalz]

I caught what I beleave is a jumping sider. I'll get some pictures. Do jumping spiders bite? Poisionous? Are they aggresseve or do they just hang out in your house? Please let me know.

I have several of them, and haven't ever been bitten, but I read somewhere that they COULD actually bite. I think you would have to somehow really tick it off though, and I certainly don't think if you were just holding it that it would bite.​

Try this for fun: Take your jumper out of it's container, and guide it onto your finger(he may jump off your hand, but that makes them easier to position if you ask me (suspended from a thread). Once you've gotten it on your finger, put another finger (from other hand) about 3 inches away from the finger the jumper is on. Watch how it's head "pivots" and it looks at your other finger, and then notice how it crouches, and leaps from one finger to the other. Start moving your fingers farther apart, and you'll be amazed at how far those little buggers can actually jump!​

What do I feed this thing? flies? ants?

As was mentioned before, you can feed them just about anything you'd feed a tarantula, and even some fun alternatives (flying insects, etc.). Just make sure you don't feed them something bigger than they are, or they probably won't even try to eat it.​

 

[orcrist]

Ants work as well as anything. Plentiful, too. I first got into spiders because there were ants infesting my room (needed tidying) and I started out keeping a zesty little steatoda in a jar. It ate anything.

BTW, if you ever stick one of those and a jumper together in the same place, don't expect them to get along. You'll get to see how smart the little jumpers are though, mine spent a few minutes running away from the Steatoda through the web, which wasn't working, so it suddenly stopped and remained motionless until the bigger spider apparently forgot it was there. Then the little jumper crept around the jar, using its fangs to sever whatever strands of web it encountered. The web started to collapse, and the Steatoda, who had been duped by the little jumper's stealth tactics, started rushing to repair it. At that point the jumper crept up behind the Steatoda and jumped on her back. BY luck, it seems, the steatoda moved right then just enough for the little jumper to overshoot, and the property owner immediately snatched it up and paralyzed it. THat's the kind of spider that only dies of age.

Anways, ants work just fine.

 

[M4RiO1979]

I fed mine flightless fruit flies. I guess pinheads may work as well.

Flies, fruitflies, no hardshelled bugs. And NO ANTS...they hate ants, I think only jumping spiders that eat ants, are ant mimics jumping spider. And do not be affraid, they are not poisonous and they will not and can't bite you. Their small fangs cannot penetrate human skin. I have never been bitten by any jumping spider, and I have handle a lot of jumpers. They are pretty amazing little creatures.

 

[Greenjewls]

I got chomped by a P. johnsoni when i was trying to hand feed it a cricket. It was my fault, because i was twiddling a cricket in front of it in my fingers, and it hopped on my finger and tagged me pretty good. Felt similar to a wasp sting. Otherwise it never tried to bite when i was just handling it. It was about .5" body length, big for a jumper, similar to P. audax in size. So to be sure, jumping spiders can bite, but they usually don't bite defensively.

---------- Post added 02-01-2013 at 08:16 AM ----------

damn zombie thread got me !

 

[M4RiO1979]

I got chomped by a P. johnsoni when i was trying to hand feed it a cricket. It was my fault, because i was twiddling a cricket in front of it in my fingers, and it hopped on my finger and tagged me pretty good. Felt similar to a wasp sting. Otherwise it never tried to bite when i was just handling it. It was about .5" body length, big for a jumper, similar to P. audax in size. So to be sure, jumping spiders can bite, but they usually don't bite defensively.

---------- Post added 02-01-2013 at 08:16 AM ----------

damn zombie thread got me !

Ups! Yeah, some bigger jumpers can penetrate a human skin, but like you said it was just because he was trying to catch a cricket. For me here in Croatia I think there is no very large species. Marpissa muscosa is largest jumper in my Country. It is about 12mm long, and maybe she can penetrate a human skin, but I was handling her too, and never got bitten. They know when something is too big for them to bite. They use their "poison", which is not a poison but some sort of a paralalyzing liquid, only for stunning their prey. Like you said, never bite defensively.

 

[Ciphor]

I caught what I beleave is a jumping sider. I'll get some pictures. Do jumping spiders bite? Poisionous? Are they aggresseve or do they just hang out in your house? Please let me know.

Yes they can bite you, but usually bites only happen when you mess around with a mom and her egg sac. No spider is aggressive, some can be defensive, jumping spiders are only known to be defensive when they are guarding an egg sac.

---------- Post added 02-01-2013 at 02:06 PM ----------

Ants work as well as anything.

Not necessarily. Ants have formic acid in their body (some spray it!) which typically most spiders avoid eating. That is not to say a spider wont eat an ant, they will if they have to, as spiders are opportunistic, and in the wild you don't always get a choice of meal. I would not recommend feeding a spider ants, if that spider does not specialize in eating them. Jumping spiders for the most part do not.