fkirby46
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2020
- Messages
- 4
Hello! My name is Fran and I have 5 house spiders. These are a recent addition, as I had been enjoying watching them chow down on my Florida cockroaches (seems like I can never get rid of them and the pest sprays are not healthy for my birds). However, they were becoming an issue, as every time I went to turn on the water in the kitchen, I was getting my hand tangled in webbing! At first, I transferred a couple of them to a small canning jar with cheesecloth over the top. The big one chased the little one and devoured it! Okay...keep separately! So I had 3 jars, with patterns in the glass, no visibility to see them
Amazon to the rescue!! I am on Social Security, so I got ONE cheap containment unit- it came with 3 plastic plants, a dropper, a teeny water bowl, and tweezers. Darn...some of the smaller bugs are escaping through the holes!! Well, I thought about putting a bigger bug in...but I was afraid it would be too big and hurt the spider. (It was 3x bigger than her!) Nope...she had built a series of web lines to be able to get around the small container and when that large bug dropped in she POUNCED and left me with a dried husk in the bottom of the container! OK-this works!! Ordered 2 more containment units as I had 5 spiders by now, one staying close to its already formed egg pouch. I had plenty of food for them, but no knowledge of male/female, of sizes of male/female. From what I can tell, all the spiders I have are female, with large abdomens. There is one spider over by the coffee pot that doesn't have a large abdomen, but if I am looking for pedipalps, the size of the spider (and its reluctance to stay still for the magnifying glass) makes sexing it difficult. Can I even keep a male in the same container as a female? Will I have to get a new male for every female? Anyway, I was just checking that they all had food available and found that the female with the egg pouch had an EXPLOSION (it looks like that from the top) of baby spiders in a holding formation over the female. I have been Googling a LOT looking for ideas and hints, so would appreciate any and all information you might have! Thank you and have a blessed day!
Amazon to the rescue!! I am on Social Security, so I got ONE cheap containment unit- it came with 3 plastic plants, a dropper, a teeny water bowl, and tweezers. Darn...some of the smaller bugs are escaping through the holes!! Well, I thought about putting a bigger bug in...but I was afraid it would be too big and hurt the spider. (It was 3x bigger than her!) Nope...she had built a series of web lines to be able to get around the small container and when that large bug dropped in she POUNCED and left me with a dried husk in the bottom of the container! OK-this works!! Ordered 2 more containment units as I had 5 spiders by now, one staying close to its already formed egg pouch. I had plenty of food for them, but no knowledge of male/female, of sizes of male/female. From what I can tell, all the spiders I have are female, with large abdomens. There is one spider over by the coffee pot that doesn't have a large abdomen, but if I am looking for pedipalps, the size of the spider (and its reluctance to stay still for the magnifying glass) makes sexing it difficult. Can I even keep a male in the same container as a female? Will I have to get a new male for every female? Anyway, I was just checking that they all had food available and found that the female with the egg pouch had an EXPLOSION (it looks like that from the top) of baby spiders in a holding formation over the female. I have been Googling a LOT looking for ideas and hints, so would appreciate any and all information you might have! Thank you and have a blessed day!