Hi all,
I recently purchased my first jumping spider, a regal female that is supposed to be a subadult. Day before yesterday she made herself a new web and yesterday there was an egg sack in it. The seller has confirmed for me that they are fertile (would have been nice if he’d informed me she might be pregnant… lol… also, do subadult spiders even lay eggs?) I’m not sure I want any additional spiders let alone hundreds of them. I think I can find homes for a couple but certainly not all.
I’ve read online that I can remove mom when she leaves the nest, then remove the sack and freeze it, then replace the whole thing, but I’m a bit nervous about doing this as I’ve never even handled the spider nor removed her from her cage. She also does not seem to be leaving the nest at all. I can’t place the whole enclosure in the freezer after removing her as there are live plants in it, so I’d need to transfer the egg sack to and from the cage intact, which seems difficult.
I've read that it's a bad idea to try to take the eggs from her directly as she will defend them vigorously and may become very stressed and potentially die after removal. Is this true?
Can anyone help me sort out my options? If I do raise the babies, do I need to separate them from mom and if so when? Do the babies need to go to a new, smaller enclosure or does mom need to move out? The enclosure they are in is a 6"*6"*9" with a lot of live plants. It seems like it will be quite difficult to remove all the babies once they hatch because there are a lot of hiding places. The enclosure has holes that are maybe 1-2 mm in diameter, will the spiderlings fit out? Also, I’ve read that fruit flies are the food of choice but I have tropical pink springtails on hand, would these work? If they stay in the main enclosure I'm also not sure how to verify they are all getting fed since like I said, the planting is quite dense.
I don’t live in an area where these spiders are native but I have family in Texas so I could potentially ship them and have my family release since I read this is part of their native range. Is that a good option? At what age would they survive shipping?
Photos of the enclosure and her with her eggs for kicks.
Thank you!
I recently purchased my first jumping spider, a regal female that is supposed to be a subadult. Day before yesterday she made herself a new web and yesterday there was an egg sack in it. The seller has confirmed for me that they are fertile (would have been nice if he’d informed me she might be pregnant… lol… also, do subadult spiders even lay eggs?) I’m not sure I want any additional spiders let alone hundreds of them. I think I can find homes for a couple but certainly not all.
I’ve read online that I can remove mom when she leaves the nest, then remove the sack and freeze it, then replace the whole thing, but I’m a bit nervous about doing this as I’ve never even handled the spider nor removed her from her cage. She also does not seem to be leaving the nest at all. I can’t place the whole enclosure in the freezer after removing her as there are live plants in it, so I’d need to transfer the egg sack to and from the cage intact, which seems difficult.
I've read that it's a bad idea to try to take the eggs from her directly as she will defend them vigorously and may become very stressed and potentially die after removal. Is this true?
Can anyone help me sort out my options? If I do raise the babies, do I need to separate them from mom and if so when? Do the babies need to go to a new, smaller enclosure or does mom need to move out? The enclosure they are in is a 6"*6"*9" with a lot of live plants. It seems like it will be quite difficult to remove all the babies once they hatch because there are a lot of hiding places. The enclosure has holes that are maybe 1-2 mm in diameter, will the spiderlings fit out? Also, I’ve read that fruit flies are the food of choice but I have tropical pink springtails on hand, would these work? If they stay in the main enclosure I'm also not sure how to verify they are all getting fed since like I said, the planting is quite dense.
I don’t live in an area where these spiders are native but I have family in Texas so I could potentially ship them and have my family release since I read this is part of their native range. Is that a good option? At what age would they survive shipping?
Photos of the enclosure and her with her eggs for kicks.
Thank you!
