Turning their dinner red?

[wonderful]

So I have a teeny tiny yellow green orb weaver style spider in a outside potted plant and I will leave teeny tiny crickets and cricket legs for her. No idea what she is and i can’t find her tonight she must be deeper in the plant. Sorry I’m rambling. Anyway, her food turns red. I’ve found the next day that they are eaten and what’s left is this bright red carcass. Even cricket legs. It’s weird. I have other spiders hanging around that I feed and they don’t turn their food red. I’ll post a pic of a cricket I removed tonight that I gave it last night.
I’ve never seen this before until her. It’s like a strawberry red and if I squish it it will be a blob like ink stain of red. Also most carcasses are empty and dried out but hers are mushy.

 

[The Snark]

I’ve never seen this before until her. It’s like a strawberry red and if I squish it it will be a blob like ink stain of red. Also most carcasses are empty and dried out but hers are mushy.

Weird, but an anomaly. If you get repetitious such incidents over a period of time you can go sleuthing.
There is one instance I encountered where the common prey of the spider were bugs that infested berry vines. -Berry juice.

 

[wonderful]

Weird, but an anomaly. If you get repetitious such incidents over a period of time you can go sleuthing.
There is one instance I encountered where the common prey of the spider were bugs that infested berry vines. -Berry juice.

That’s a good point about the berries but even the crickets I use for feeders turned red. This is like the 5th carcass I’ve seen the next day bright red. And it’s feeder crickets, flys, misc. tiny bugs. The color even dyes the webbing where the bodies dangle. I wish I could photo it but it’s so damn tiny my phone can’t focus..

 

[The Snark]

That’s a good point about the berries but even the crickets I use for feeders turned red. This is like the 5th carcass I’ve seen the next day bright red.

Serious puzzler. Dialing it back to chemistry basics, you either have to have a source material that is red, or a chemical reaction producing that color. With chemical reaction the chemicals involved can be any color or colorless. Head scratching time. I'm wondering if there is some chemical present that is undergoing a reaction. The reagent causing the chemical reaction can be anything, liquid, solid or gaseous.

@wonderful Look closely as see what the red color is on. Is it predominantly confined to the chitin on the bugs?

@DaveM Okay you lab rat, what causes chemical reactions in linear polysaccharides? I'm vaguely recalling a reagent that turns sugar red.

 

[wonderful]

Serious puzzler. Dialing it back to chemistry basics, you either have to have a source material that is red, or a chemical reaction producing that color. With chemical reaction the chemicals involved can be any color or colorless. Head scratching time. I'm wondering if there is some chemical present that is undergoing a reaction. The reagent causing the chemical reaction can be anything, liquid, solid or gaseous.

Interesting. Let’s see, I have shredded cardboard paper towel tubes over the dirt in the plant pot and the webbing area touches is. The plant is a basic potted snake plant. I haven’t fertilized in 2 or so months. I have other spiders in other house plants with same dirt and yada yada the only difference is the cardboard mulch cover. The dirt was drying out to quick in this texas sun and the coardboard mulch helps. I wonder if there’s some weird chemical reaction from that? They are plain bounty paper towels. I also use them in the cricket home instead of egg cartons.
Curiouser and curiouser.

I got it!
it’s not a spider but a alien from MARS! That’s why it’s making everything red. Tiny alien is turning earth into a RED PLANET!!! RUN AND HIDE!!!

 

[The Snark]

it’s not a spider but a alien from MARS! That’s why it’s making everything red. Tiny alien is turning earth into a RED PLANET!!! RUN AND HIDE!!!

Put a sign on the door of your critter room, Little Shop of Horrors.

 

[wonderful]

Sorry can’t make sign busy painting body red to please our new spider-like overlords.