Keeping a house spider

[MissJaime]

Hello, Im after information on how I can better look after a common house spider Im keeping.

The reason Im keeping one is because one moved into my bathroom about 6 months ago. I have (had) a massive spider phobia and thought if I let her stay, as she is small, I can get used to her and hence all spiders.

Anyway it worked, I removed my first spider from my house calmly with my hands two weeks ago And my spider -Trevoreenie (Was Trevor till someone told me male spiders are nomadic)now has a lovely little tank to herself and I love her lots.

So down to business.
She has cotton wool soaked with water in a small container for her drinkies.

She has made her web behind a quartz crystal cluster that I put in her tank, she seems to like corners to hide in. Her substrate is that small pebbel stuff for goldfish tanks.

Im feeding her flies, which is easy at the moment because its summer (and also fun because flies are really annoying)

She has shed twice so far since she moved in abut 6 months ago

She is quite fat at the moment so no flies this week. I assume thier bellies dont explode like Mantis` do?

I dont handle her, although Id like to,she doesnt need the stress.

I assume Ill have to feed her crickets when the fly supply dies in Winter? (Really not looking forward to that)

What else should I be doing?

Thanks in advance

 

[ErikWestblom]

Well, since it's been doing fine for the last 6 months, your are obviously doing something right

I can only speak for myself, but I wouldn't keep her on pebbles, I keep mine on peat moss with a piece of cork bark to hide under/behind. I'll post a pic of my setup later. Try to find a pet store that sells small sized crickets, or get more spiders to feed, since it's a waste buying a lot of small crickets online when she only needs one per week. The crickets will grow and become too big for her before she can eat them all.

In the wild they don't have any moist cotton to drink from, so they drink the small droplets that stay in their web after rainfall. Remember to keep the humidity up too, they don't really like it when it gets too dry for too long. Really easy spiders to care for, and actually a lot of fun. Think there are a few more fans for Tegenaria species on this board too, as seen in another recent thread

 

[MissJaime]

Aaaaah really? Ok cool. Ill change her to peat moss soon as I can.
Would it be good to mist her web with water?

One per week huh? What happens if she has too many flies/crickets? She wont go bang will she? LOL

Oh thanks for the latin name, I never knew it. That`l make research easier

Oh forgot to mention, she was sleeping with her underside against the plastic today, Iv never seen her underside before it was fascinating!

 

[ErikWestblom]

Well, use common sense with the feeding. If she's too big, stop with the feeding for a week or so.

And yeah, spray her tank like every 2 days or something like that, not too wet and not too dry.

Check out Tegenaria domestica, T. atrica, T. duellica, T. gigantea, T. agrestis and see if any of them fits.

 

[ErikWestblom]

Mine is a juvenile Tegenaria atrica. It's about 10mm BL. She will eventually get twice the bodylength

Setup:

A bit closer:

 

[MissJaime]

Yep, thats the same as mine

Your set up looks more natural than my lime green pebbles too, LOL
Getting peat is on my list of things to do today!

 

[ErikWestblom]

Remember to get peat without pesticides or anything like that. And btw, the stick in my setup is only there so she has something to fasten her web on.

 

[Tegenaria]

I take it this a Tegenaria.
I've kept a few of these in my time. I've found a tall arboreal type container works best as they dont really spend a great deal of time o the floor. Mine would eat anything that moved,fantastic to watch!

Heres what i kept mine in:

 

[spider.davies@g]

Just a rolled up loose ball of wallpaper will usually suffice. Tegenaria will live in anything generally.

Tegenaria, you'd be better letting your mature male go to go about his business as he won't live much longer.

 

[Tegenaria]

Tegenaria, you'd be better letting your mature male go to go about his business as he won't live much longer.

Oh this was ages ago, long since released. I have a Tarantula in that bottle now!