Latrodectus hesperus sling care

[Darkchrist31]

Good day everyone! ^_^
Its my first time getting a Latrodectus hesperus sling and I really do hope to make sure everything is perfect for the little girl/guy.

Seeking for advice and experience on the "Do's and Don't s" at her sling stage.

Side questions: 1. When should I start feeding him after settling her down in her new enclosure?
2. What portion should be the size of her meal? (I'm thinking half a mealworm w/o head) (just to make sure)
3. Will she be ok in air-conditioned room? (70-74F)
4. Preferable substrate? (I'm using fine sand)

Any helpful advice or experience sharing will be greatly appreciated
Thank you in advance! ^_^

 

[chanda]

The substrate doesn't matter. I've kept L. hesperus with on sand, dirt, coconut fiber, paper towel - even no substrate at all. They'll spend pretty much all their time in their web anyway. What they do need are plenty of attachment points - and you need to figure out a way to prevent them webbing up the enclosure so that you can't open it without destroying the web. A few things that have worked for me:

• A small, bottom-opening acrylic enclosure, with twigs/bark hot-glued to the top. The entire top lifts off - web and all - allowing you to drop a feeder into the base, then put the top back on.
• An empty water bottle. I've housed slings and even mature widows in empty plastic water or soda bottles. I just drop assorted twigs or plant bits for anchor points - and make sure none of them are tall enough to reach the lid. Of course, the spiders can climb and web directly on the plastic, too - so I used a piece of nylon stocking over the opening of the bottle, held in place with a rubber band, before screwing the cap on. That way, when I removed the cap, there was no way I'd lift the spider along with the cap.
• Plastic bug cups with a screened or vented lid - and a feeding hole with a bit of sponge to keep it filled/covered when not in use.

An air conditioned room will be fine. I've always kept mine at room temperature in an air-conditioned house.

You can feed her either pre-killed prey (like partial mealworms) or small live prey like baby crickets, fruit flies, or whatever is handy. Latrodectus slings will scavenge - but they are also ferocious hunters of pretty much anything smaller than themselves - and even a few things that aren't. If you have a sac, you can just let the slings eat each other until the population gets down to manageable levels. It's a lot easier to avoid escapees when opening the enclosure if you can actually count how many spiders are in there! With a freshly-hatched sac, there are far too many to keep track of.

L. hesperus is adapted to desert living, so they do not require supplemental watering - particularly in an enclosure with minimal ventilation. They get all their moisture from their food.

You can start offering food pretty much right away. The only time I'd hold back on the food is immediately following a molt.

Have fun! These are interesting spiders, very hardy and easy to keep.

 

[Darkchrist31]

The substrate doesn't matter. I've kept L. hesperus with on sand, dirt, coconut fiber, paper towel - even no substrate at all. They'll spend pretty much all their time in their web anyway. What they do need are plenty of attachment points - and you need to figure out a way to prevent them webbing up the enclosure so that you can't open it without destroying the web. A few things that have worked for me:

• A small, bottom-opening acrylic enclosure, with twigs/bark hot-glued to the top. The entire top lifts off - web and all - allowing you to drop a feeder into the base, then put the top back on.
• An empty water bottle. I've housed slings and even mature widows in empty plastic water or soda bottles. I just drop assorted twigs or plant bits for anchor points - and make sure none of them are tall enough to reach the lid. Of course, the spiders can climb and web directly on the plastic, too - so I used a piece of nylon stocking over the opening of the bottle, held in place with a rubber band, before screwing the cap on. That way, when I removed the cap, there was no way I'd lift the spider along with the cap.
• Plastic bug cups with a screened or vented lid - and a feeding hole with a bit of sponge to keep it filled/covered when not in use.

An air conditioned room will be fine. I've always kept mine at room temperature in an air-conditioned house.

You can feed her either pre-killed prey (like partial mealworms) or small live prey like baby crickets, fruit flies, or whatever is handy. Latrodectus slings will scavenge - but they are also ferocious hunters of pretty much anything smaller than themselves - and even a few things that aren't. If you have a sac, you can just let the slings eat each other until the population gets down to manageable levels. It's a lot easier to avoid escapees when opening the enclosure if you can actually count how many spiders are in there! With a freshly-hatched sac, there are far too many to keep track of.

L. hesperus is adapted to desert living, so they do not require supplemental watering - particularly in an enclosure with minimal ventilation. They get all their moisture from their food.

You can start offering food pretty much right away. The only time I'd hold back on the food is immediately following a molt.

Have fun! These are interesting spiders, very hardy and easy to keep.

Thank you sooo much!!
You have no idea how much your advice and tips will help me! I was still worrying about the sizes of the ventilation holes and then you provided me some really useful advices! I am using gauze bandage as part of the jar lid for now so that the sling won't be able to escape.
Thank you for your advices, really do appreciate it! Glad to have experienced keeper like you guiding us newbie selflessly! ^_^
Hope the little one will do well! ^_^