*Help* L. Mactans Spiderlings

[Svana]

Hi all!

I’m new so please forgive me for the length of this post. **For TLDR just scroll to the bottom**

I have somewhat recently come to possess a gravid L. Mactans and she’s produced 5 egg sacs in the last few months. She is wild caught and I assumed they were fertile. It seems as soon as I take one away from her, she produces a new one. Is this normal?

I have been keeping these sacs in small jars with cheesecloth over the opening secured with rubber bands. Last week, I awoke to about 10 spiderlings in the jar. By afternoon, there were over 100. I’ve separated most of them out into small plastic sauce cups (approx 4-8 spiderlings per cup) with material to web on as well as the cut off end of a Q-tip for water.

My plan was to just kind of let them thin out their own population (survival of the fittest and all) and select which ones I want to keep after their 2nd molt.

**My questions is: what am I missing? Should I be offering them flightless fruit flies now or wait until after they cannibalize and molt? I also have isopod colonies I can steal babies from. It is very difficult to find information on spiderlings and I want to ensure I am not killing them by starving them or dehydrating them as I feel this is cruel. I have four more egg sacs and the next should be emerging within the next 7-10 days so I desperately need help lol

Picture of my juvenile (not the mother) and some of the slings for tax. Thank you!

 

[NMTs]

I've never tried to raise the babies, so this advice is not from experience - just intuition and things I've read. If you don't want as many as you've got, why not just release a portion of them and let them fend for themselves (assuming they're native to area since mother is WC)? Once you've reduced the number to your desired amount, you can start feeding them. If it were me I would avoid fruit flies and just feed a prekilled cricket/roach/mealworm hatchling or nymph - one or 2 feeders per container should be fine because I believe the slings will all feed from the same feeder at once. This might not be the case, but I'm fairly certain they will.

That's a ton of tiny slings! What are you going to do with the ones that you keep? Just raise them up, or are you planning to sell/trade them? Not that it matters, I'm just curious.

 

[Svana]

I've never tried to raise the babies, so this advice is not from experience - just intuition and things I've read. If you don't want as many as you've got, why not just release a portion of them and let them fend for themselves (assuming they're native to area since mother is WC)? Once you've reduced the number to your desired amount, you can start feeding them. If it were me I would avoid fruit flies and just feed a prekilled cricket/roach/mealworm hatchling or nymph - one or 2 feeders per container should be fine because I believe the slings will all feed from the same feeder at once. This might not be the case, but I'm fairly certain they will.

That's a ton of tiny slings! What are you going to do with the ones that you keep? Just raise them up, or are you planning to sell/trade them? Not that it matters, I'm just curious.

I released about half today! They are native and mom is WC from my garage/trash bin so it’s no problem.

They are far too small for even pinhead crickets. They aren’t even the size of a grain of rice, legs included. Flightless fruit flies are the smallest I have aside from isopod babies. My question is more about when to offer them food. I’ve read mixed things: immediately, after first molt, after second molt etc. They just emerged on Wednesday, 7/13.

I plan to pick about 4 males and 4 females from each sac to keep. Whichever my favorites are. The rest I will either release or just give them away locally. I have a couple friends who have already taken a cup-o-slings but I do still have four sacs left so plenty to go around! I will say I am not currently offering to ship any due to the heat but would be open to the idea later in the year!

 

[Soupbone]

You can throw in full size pre killed crickets. They will gather up and eat it. Limbs, heads, everything. They are a hardy species that is very opportunistic. This one for example got big on communal feedings (L. tredecimguttatus). Well fed, they dont predate on each other as much and with time will build their own webs, provided enough space.

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[Svana]

You can throw in full size pre killed crickets. They will gather up and eat it. Limbs, heads, everything. They are a hardy species that is very opportunistic. This one for example got big on communal feedings (L. tredecimguttatus). Well fed, they dont predate on each other as much and with time will build their own webs, provided enough space.
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View attachment 424128

WOW. What a stunning spider! <edit>