False black widow

[ikeepspiders]

My false black widow spider enclosures/cups. I want to know if I’m doing these right and the best wild caught food. I prefer the bugs in my backyard there are three but only two are visible because the last one hides

 

[ikeepspiders]

Will these work as their homes

 

[ikeepspiders]

Will these work as their homes

 

[Cecelias lair]

What species is your false widow?
I've had experiences with Steatoda nobilis I might be able to help.
Generally false widows tend to just hang around on webs so substrate isn't necessary for them.

 

[ikeepspiders]

I believe I have Steatoda grossa or Steatoda borealis but that is the closest to it I can find these were also found under rocks and leaves so that is why I wanted the substrate

 

[ikeepspiders]

Update all three are females so they won’t breed. Is the largest one just older or gravid

 

[Cororon]

The substrate could be good to hold the sticks in place for the web. I don't think it's a good idea to keep more than one in that jar. You could certainly keep more than one Steatoda in a larger box where they can stay in separate corners. But if they enlarge their webs and they touch... then you might see Tom & Jerry kind of fights...

I had two Steatodas having their webs on the bottom of a floor lamp. They were good neighbours until one of them built his web larger so the silk got interweaved with the female's web. He noticed that and walked up on the female's web, and she came out from her retreat and chased him back. Then over a few days they chased eachother back and forth, so I had to remove a piece of the interweaved web and put a barrier between them. That worked, but now the female lived on the male's web and vice versa. Oh well, it worked.

 

[ikeepspiders]

Ok I’ll separate them so that doesn’t happen I saw them chasing each other but I assumed they just got spooked

 

[Cecelias lair]

Ok I’ll separate them so that doesn’t happen I saw them chasing each other but I assumed they just got spooked

They chase each other because they're cannibalistic. It's not many species of spiders that can live in a enclosure together. So general rule is don't do it, unless you wanna feed one to the other lol.

 

[ikeepspiders]

Would something like this work for more than one it’s about 2 feet tall

 

[Cororon]

They chase each other because they're cannibalistic. It's not many species of spiders that can live in a enclosure together. So general rule is don't do it, unless you wanna feed one to the other lol.

Steatodas can be cannibalistic, but most of the time they are nice enough to just plucking strands of the web to tell the intruder to leave or chase it away. They can live as neighbours without problems in a room, but they shouldn't share an enclosure.

Would something like this work for more than one it’s about 2 feet tall

Sure! But one half that size would work as well.

 

[tonyb24]

Steatoda grossa

Ha, “grossa”.

 

[Rixie]

I want to know if I’m doing these right and the best wild caught food.

I'd be very careful with wild-caught food. I've heard they can harbor parasites. Or they might have pesticides on them that could hurt your spiders. For my black widows, I keep a small colony of mealworms in a 2 gallon tub. If you only have three, you'll probably only need a few mealworms each month. It may be better to buy a small pack and keep them in the fridge.