How to make sure my cellar spiders are getting enough to eat

[Cryoraptor]

Hello everyone! I've had cellar spiders naturally living in my house since forever and kinda left them to their own devices, but I am now taking an interest in them.

I have had around 3 or 4 cellars naturally living in my room this year intermittently. That might sound like a lot but most years I have 6-10, so I took it upon myself to search the house for new roommates to add to my collection, and found nothing apart from a dead crane fly and wolf spider in old, abandoned webs. I found a few suspected Tegenaria webs but I'd rather leave them alone as they do creep me out a little, not to mention they'd probably end up as food for the cellars.

Moving on, I went into the garage as a last resort and found numerous cellars of differing ages and sizes. I managed to capture about 5 of them, with 2 being brooding females, 2-3 males and one young female that might end up becoming food. One of them already had a male partner, but sadly he fled and I couldn't catch him. To my delight though, I have woken up this morning to see that one of the females has already paired with another male, either one I captured or one that was already living in my room, meaning I can expect spiderlings in the near future. I know that cellars usually lay their eggs around June time, so this is the perfect time to expose both sexes to one another.

Anyway, to get to the point of this thread, I deliberately leave my window open at dusk so that moths, caddisflies and other small insects can fly in. I doubt that they work out how to fly back out so in the morning when all but a couple have disappeared, I assume that the cellar spiders are capturing and eating most of them. Am I right to assume that cellar spiders will go after small prey like this? I am well aware that they readily eat monster-size crane flies (that I will 100% NOT let into my room as I am somehow extremely entomophobic) and spiders bigger than themselves; a few weeks ago I witnessed a decent-sized wolf spider getting jumped and eaten by one of my cellars.

If not, what can I do to help them along with food as I know that if they feel like they aren't getting enough food, they will end up killing each other, which is what I don't want. I have more than enough room to accommodate for at least 50 cellars if they were to somehow have access to enough food for that many, so I want to make sure they are receiving ample food supplies to keep breeding and populating my room with new spiderlings.

Thanks for any and all advice

 

[ignithium]

Hello everyone! I've had cellar spiders naturally living in my house since forever and kinda left them to their own devices, but I am now taking an interest in them.

I have had around 3 or 4 cellars naturally living in my room this year intermittently. That might sound like a lot but most years I have 6-10, so I took it upon myself to search the house for new roommates to add to my collection, and found nothing apart from a dead crane fly and wolf spider in old, abandoned webs. I found a few suspected Tegenaria webs but I'd rather leave them alone as they do creep me out a little, not to mention they'd probably end up as food for the cellars.

Moving on, I went into the garage as a last resort and found numerous cellars of differing ages and sizes. I managed to capture about 5 of them, with 2 being brooding females, 2-3 males and one young female that might end up becoming food. One of them already had a male partner, but sadly he fled and I couldn't catch him. To my delight though, I have woken up this morning to see that one of the females has already paired with another male, either one I captured or one that was already living in my room, meaning I can expect spiderlings in the near future. I know that cellars usually lay their eggs around June time, so this is the perfect time to expose both sexes to one another.

Anyway, to get to the point of this thread, I deliberately leave my window open at dusk so that moths, caddisflies and other small insects can fly in. I doubt that they work out how to fly back out so in the morning when all but a couple have disappeared, I assume that the cellar spiders are capturing and eating most of them. Am I right to assume that cellar spiders will go after small prey like this? I am well aware that they readily eat monster-size crane flies (that I will 100% NOT let into my room as I am somehow extremely entomophobic) and spiders bigger than themselves; a few weeks ago I witnessed a decent-sized wolf spider getting jumped and eaten by one of my cellars.

If not, what can I do to help them along with food as I know that if they feel like they aren't getting enough food, they will end up killing each other, which is what I don't want. I have more than enough room to accommodate for at least 50 cellars if they were to somehow have access to enough food for that many, so I want to make sure they are receiving ample food supplies to keep breeding and populating my room with new spiderlings.

Thanks for any and all advice

They really don't need much food. I had a big nasty one in my shower and I took it off the wall and put a jar over it and slid it in to the corner, and then I just forgot about it. I found the jar like 6 months later and the spider was still under it doing just fine, I threw a roach larvae under there and it ate it then I left and forgot about it again. It's been almost 4 months since then and the spider is still chilling, it's abdomen doesn't look tiny or anything so I think they just dont need that much food.

 

[Cryoraptor]

They really don't need much food. I had a big nasty one in my shower and I took it off the wall and put a jar over it and slid it in to the corner, and then I just forgot about it. I found the jar like 6 months later and the spider was still under it doing just fine, I threw a roach larvae under there and it ate it then I left and forgot about it again. It's been almost 4 months since then and the spider is still chilling, it's abdomen doesn't look tiny or anything so I think they just dont need that much food.

This is true. I forget how much slower a spider's metabolism is than the average mammal's and how big their meals actually are; a cellar eating a big crane fly is like a human eating something on the scale of a polar bear in one sitting. Even small moths are good-sized meals.

I always wondered how our relatively insect-void home housed so many cellars in the past; considering our meal sizes and how long we can go without food, they must be able to go a few months or even longer without eating after a decent meal. A few small moths/caddisflies a night is probably quite the abundance for them

I will keep an eye on them to make sure they don't start fighting each other - I did notice that one of my biggest had killed a smaller one, but I think this was more of a turf war as this particular spider was migrating to the other side of the room at the time, and this baby cellar was in the way. Since then this big female has kept to it's new home and doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else.

As we speak, my paired couple seem to be arguing - It seems a bit early for the female to kick the male out yet. From what I've seen, she keeps the male around until the spiderlings start to hatch. I never knew that any species of male spider actually took a role in protecting young; I was always under the impression that males were nothing but sperm donors and meals for female spiders.
Either way, I think they are making up now. That or they are getting ready to eat each other. We'll see how it plays out

 

[pannaking22]

They'll eat whatever stumbles into their web. If it's tiny and doesn't trip any web strands they won't notice it, but most things will get a response.

 

[basin79]

They really don't need much food. I had a big nasty one in my shower and I took it off the wall and put a jar over it and slid it in to the corner, and then I just forgot about it. I found the jar like 6 months later and the spider was still under it doing just fine, I threw a roach larvae under there and it ate it then I left and forgot about it again. It's been almost 4 months since then and the spider is still chilling, it's abdomen doesn't look tiny or anything so I think they just dont need that much food.

How about just letting the big "nasty" cellar spider go? That way you can forget about it forever.

 

[ignithium]

How about just letting the big "nasty" cellar spider go? That way you can forget about it forever.

Eh he's chilling I gave him another roach. It's too cold outside for him to survive and I just don't want him free roaming.

 

[Gurantula]

Hey Cryoraptor, I totally don't mean to hijack your thread, but I have a couple of "cellar spiders" that have made a living eating the bugs in my living room. I was wondering what you could tell me about them. They look like a male and a female and they are normally within 2-3 feet of each other. Are they buddies? Haha. Anyways I didn't want to start a whole new thread on some house spiders I found, but you seem knowledgeable of the cellars so I hope you don't mind. Here are a few pics of the two. Not sure if they are true cellar spiders or the (not so much a spider) "daddy long legs." Thanks

Edit: just did a quick search of what I thought was a daddy long leg, I was wrong. Apparently they are cellar spiders too?