My Steatoda Triangulosa Just Had Babies Today--Need Advice, Please ♡

[8littlelegs]

I am over the moon--a first-time hatch for me. She laid on the 4th of April, and the egg sack hatched this morning. They are beyond tiny, and so very, very cute. She also laid 4 other eggsacks in succession, not long after laying the first. The first sack appears to have contained about 30-50 baby spiders. Each the size of the head of a pin.🥹
I have secured their enclosure, as they would easily be able to slip through the air holes in it.
My question is this: how long should I wait, before starting them on flightless fruit flies?
Or should I pour some in there, now? They look way too small to even deal with those, but I know they can eat meals a bit bigger than themselves...
I've been feeding their new Mommy (yee!♡♡♡) a mealworm every week, which is WAY bigger than she is, and she does just fine with that. I do spear it through the middle with a toothpick before hanging it in her enclosure. Would the babies do fine with that as well? If I set up a few pre-killed mealworms for them?
I want to do everything I can to prevent cannibalism.
How long should I let them stay with mom, before sending them out into the great outdoors?
I want to note that I do not have a water dish in there; I'm afraid they'd drown, and they will get all they need from prey.
Sorry for the plethora of questions; I want to get this right!
I appreciate any and all comments and help you might give me. Also, sorry for the blurry pic.

 

[CRX]

How long did this clutch take to hatch? I have a Triangulosa and she just laid her 3rd egg sac. I threw the last 2 out but I'm considering keeping this one.

Also, cannibalism is natural and to be expected. Weak spiderlings aren't meant to make it to adulthood, just the way of things.

 

[viper69]

They are predators already.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They probably eat small nats or flies in the wild . I’d imagine they can already survive…

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

They probably eat small nats or flies in the wild . I’d imagine they can already survive…

You are right about what they eat in the wild. Well, if you consider the inside of my house “the wild” anyway! I consider them more “free range spiders”. LOL

But yes, when females have their babies in the corners of rooms along the baseboards and under furniture I see what they are feeding on by the mess they leave on my floor and it is the tiniest flies and what one would consider nats. The very same annoying things that you can’t see flying around until they are right in your face. They are also feeding on some kind of other tiny unidentifiable walking insects. Insects that just occur naturally in and around the home which can’t be bought.

 

[8littlelegs]

How long did this clutch take to hatch? I have a Triangulosa and she just laid her 3rd egg sac. I threw the last 2 out but I'm considering keeping this one.

Also, cannibalism is natural and to be expected. Weak spiderlings aren't meant to make it to adulthood, just the way of things.

The egg sack was laid on April 3rd, it just hatched this morning, May 13th.
What's cool is that she has laid 5 consecutive sacks, not too long after the first was laid. I am expecting many baby cobwebs ♡♡♡.

 

[8littlelegs]

They probably eat small nats or flies in the wild . I’d imagine they can already survive…

They can survive on the first day!? Nature is SO cool. Red in tooth and claw...and pedipalp

 

[8littlelegs]

You are right about what they eat in the wild. Well, if you consider the inside of my house “the wild” anyway! I consider them more “free range spiders”. LOL

But yes, when females have their babies in the corners of rooms along the baseboards and under furniture I see what they are feeding on by the mess they leave on my floor and it is the tiniest flies and what one would consider nats. The very same annoying things that you can’t see flying around until they are right in your face. They are also feeding on some kind of other tiny unidentifiable walking insects. Insects that just occur naturally in and around the home which can’t be bought.

Very, very interesting! I went ahead and speared two mealworms and hung them in the nest.
I'm thankful I checked their old enclosure this morning and found them, before they decided to r-u-n-n-o-f-t, haha.
I had to make a new enclosure, withquicknesss; they were already beginning to escape!!

 

[8littlelegs]

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who replied so quickly and so helpfully; it means a lot to me.
This is such a great place--it's good to be around fellow spider lovers and more experienced keepers who lend help to novices such as myself.
For real, thanks y'all

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

You are right about what they eat in the wild. Well, if you consider the inside of my house “the wild” anyway! I consider them more “free range spiders”. LOL

But yes, when females have their babies in the corners of rooms along the baseboards and under furniture I see what they are feeding on by the mess they leave on my floor and it is the tiniest flies and what one would consider nats. The very same annoying things that you can’t see flying around until they are right in your face. They are also feeding on some kind of other tiny unidentifiable walking insects. Insects that just occur naturally in and around the home which can’t be bought.

I haven’t seen this particular sub species but I used to see similar ones in the garage before the door was installed, there’s still probably some out there since it’s got open spots for bugs to get in.
I got cellar spiders and house centipedes in the basement, but I’ve seen other ones get in there . I still won’t dry anything outside because of phorid flies like soil or anything… costly invasion a few years back . Still not replaced what I lost.

 

[Charliemum]

@darkness975 these are your house I believe

I have kept Steatoda but my knowledge is still noob stage and my situation was different to yours.
My mum passed away before her sac hatched but she was old missing 2 legs and tbh I was surprised she even laid she was already at the fluffy stage they reach when old and there were only 14 babys which . Never gave my Steatoda a water dish I have raised 3 females and 2 males from sling plus countless rescues from my cats/son, ( catched feed release and any spider in the house needs this according to my son ,) I released the males back into my house, (no they don't bother me and I have never been biten) same as I do with the slings, if i caught them in my house they belong there as much as me.
I tried fruit walks extra small after a week but I never saw one catch them and about 3/4 days after that once the fruit walks were gone/dead I put the viv in my kitchen where I found mum with the lid open n let them do their thing, next day they were gone.

 

[MorbidArachnid]

Honestly with cobweb spiders recommend letting them cannibalize for a bit. They lay a lot of eggs (as you've seen) and it's impossible to care for all of them yourself. If you plan on keeping them it's either let them cannibalize or cull. If you plan on releasing them, I would do it soon and without feeding them anything. Feeders from the store (like fruit flies) can have diseases that if you feed your slings and then release them into the wild can pass those onto wild spiders. There's also the potential if you keep them for a while and keep them very well fed that more of them would survive and they'd grow bigger than a wild egg sac laid at the same time, so when you do release them the spiders from this particular mom that were raised in captivity will have an advantage over other wild egg sacs that are the same age, which could cause them to outcompete the other spiders. Honestly for me personally, if I'm not planning on keeping an egg sac for pets I just release them right away.

 

[8littlelegs]

Honestly with cobweb spiders recommend letting them cannibalize for a bit. They lay a lot of eggs (as you've seen) and it's impossible to care for all of them yourself. If you plan on keeping them it's either let them cannibalize or cull. If you plan on releasing them, I would do it soon and without feeding them anything. Feeders from the store (like fruit flies) can have diseases that if you feed your slings and then release them into the wild can pass those onto wild spiders. There's also the potential if you keep them for a while and keep them very well fed that more of them would survive and they'd grow bigger than a wild egg sac laid at the same time, so when you do release them the spiders from this particular mom that were raised in captivity will have an advantage over other wild egg sacs that are the same age, which could cause them to outcompete the other spiders. Honestly for me personally, if I'm not planning on keeping an egg sac for pets I just release them right away.

Oh, I know there's no way I can raise that many spiderlings.
I am planning to release them into the wild, but want to wait until they've completed a few moults, and are proper little slings. They are SO exquisitely tiny--Obviously most of them aren't supposed to make it; I just wanted to see them grow a tad before releasing them.
You know, I read online that S. Triangulosa only lays 30 eggs per clutch, but either two of the eggs hatched, or there were far more in the first one. There had to be at least 50 or 60 in the first one...the other 4 eggsacs are still intact.
Has anyone on here counted how many were in a clutch they'd seen hatch? I'm wondering if the info out there is, perhaps, a bit off. You know, I wasn't able to find hardly any info about this species. Not until I posted on here.
I really appreciate all of you guys!!!

 

[Charliemum]

As far as I am aware the sacs get smaller the more they make hang on...

This might help this man's knowledge is great and what he doesn't know he knows someone that does , been a while since I watched it but I think he talks about sacs ect, but even if I am wrong it's worth watching just for knowledge of the genus.

 

[Charliemum]

As far as I am aware the sacs get smaller the more they make hang on...

This might help this man's knowledge is great and what he doesn't know he knows someone that does , been a while since I watched it but I think he talks about sacs ect, but even if I am wrong it's worth watching just for knowledge of the genus.

Just rewatched it he does at the end says 30-200 eggs in each sac n can make a sac every month.

 

[darkness975]

I am over the moon--a first-time hatch for me. She laid on the 4th of April, and the egg sack hatched this morning. They are beyond tiny, and so very, very cute. She also laid 4 other eggsacks in succession, not long after laying the first. The first sack appears to have contained about 30-50 baby spiders. Each the size of the head of a pin.🥹
I have secured their enclosure, as they would easily be able to slip through the air holes in it.
My question is this: how long should I wait, before starting them on flightless fruit flies?
Or should I pour some in there, now? They look way too small to even deal with those, but I know they can eat meals a bit bigger than themselves...
I've been feeding their new Mommy (yee!♡♡♡) a mealworm every week, which is WAY bigger than she is, and she does just fine with that. I do spear it through the middle with a toothpick before hanging it in her enclosure. Would the babies do fine with that as well? If I set up a few pre-killed mealworms for them?
I want to do everything I can to prevent cannibalism.
How long should I let them stay with mom, before sending them out into the great outdoors?
I want to note that I do not have a water dish in there; I'm afraid they'd drown, and they will get all they need from prey.
Sorry for the plethora of questions; I want to get this right!
I appreciate any and all comments and help you might give me. Also, sorry for the blurry pic.
View attachment 473311

They will start cannibalizing within a matter of a couple days. If your intention is to release them I would do it now. They're evolved to live on their own as soon as they hatch and wander off.

 

[8littlelegs]

Just rewatched it he does at the end says 30-200 eggs in each sac n can make a sac every month.

Awesome! Yes, each subsequent sac definitely appears smaller than the first one.
Thanks for this video-- Great stuff!!

 

[8littlelegs]

They will start cannibalizing within a matter of a couple days. If your intention is to release them I would do it now. They're evolved to live on their own as soon as they hatch and wander off.

Oh snap--okay. Good information. Thanks!

 

[TheWidowsPeak]

I'm raising some now and am having good luck with feeding flour beetle larvae.

 

[8littlelegs]

I'm raising some now and am having good luck with feeding flour beetle larvae.

That's awesome! Mine are a few weeks old now, and I'm going to let them go. They deserve to be in the wild, where I caught their Mom. I'll be sad but it will be better for them.