Humidity

[Sheepy]

Hi,

I've been wondering, do tropical species really NEED the ridiculously high humidity as the pet books say so?

In lab we keep a bunch of different spiders, but only our Nephila and Argiope that we got from Florida are on strict humidifier control; set to 75% HR.

Black widows and Jumping spiders we just leave in their cages, the ambient room humidity is about 40~50% fluctuating.

We've also had a Mexican Blonde Tarantula for a while now, and it's said to need 75% humidity; but we just keep it in it's cage with a water dish, on a heat lamp for heat. It's been doing just fine so far. The Mexican Blonde is a desert species, so I don't get why it needs the high humidity...

We just received two new Green Lynx spiders, and I'm wondering if I should set them up with humidifier control as well, or can I leave them with ambient room humidity? Of course, having vegetation in the cage probably would help bump the % up a bit.

Thanks!

 

[Widowman10]

sometimes it's much overrated, but i know slings in particular are MUCH more sensitive to humidity than adult spiders. you are right though, for almost my entire collection, i keep at around 20-30% humidity (CO is very dry!) and they have been fine for years. ideal? maybe not. ok? definitely.