Wild spiders in cativity?

[Tegenaria]

Has anyone caught a native wild spider, often found in the shed/bathtub, and actually kept it in a tank in order to study it in detail?

Ive thought of capturing a Tegenaria or Amaurobius and keeping it somewhere safe.

I would only do this if it was found in the house and would otherwsie be swept away or, err,worse.

 

[chris73]

I have caught many "house" spiders and provided housing and care for them. It's quite rewarding to watch them carry out their lives and become more than something scurrying up the wall.

 

[Tegenaria]

sounds good to me, but really they own us you know....we are their pets!

 

[cacoseraph]

i used to keep a bunch of local WC bugs, but i sort of ran out of room

now i still keep selfWC scorps and centis

but generally i will still have a western black widow or two on hand

i used to keep pholcus phalangoides (daddy long leg/harvestmen spiders) all around my room to kill any small strays, but they don't seem to like my new house

i want to try to keep a local Oxyopidae lynx spider if i can find one

 

[Tegenaria]

cacoseraph,what are WC bugs?

 

[Elizabeth]

WC usually means "wild caught".

 

[Tegenaria]

WC usually means "wild caught".

Duh me!:8o

 

[Laurie]

I have a pet tegenaria. She's wild, makes a good pet. She's kind of too fast to hold though, but if I keep her in a small space where she can't get underanything, it's fun.

 

[Tegenaria]

I have a pet tegenaria. She's wild, makes a good pet. She's kind of too fast to hold though, but if I keep her in a small space where she can't get underanything, it's fun.

and where are you from Laurie?

 

[Scylla]

I found a little jumping spider on the last warm day before we got a freeze. That was about a month ago. He's still doing fine, eating like a piglet. If he's still alive when it warms up again, I'll put him back where I found him.

 

[Venom]

I keep a bunch of local caught true spiders every year. This year I've kept:

Theridion sp.
Steatoda sp.
Dolomedes sp. ( scriptus?)
Arctosa littoralis
Cheiracanthium sp.
Agelenopsis sp.
Hogna helluo (?)

and one unidentified Theridiid ( L.variolus? ) ( unidentified because it is extremely small, about 3/16" )

 

[Kid Dragon]

Heteropoda venatoria

I'm keeping a Florida Huntsman (Heteropoda venatoria) right now and its been fun. Its a big, fast, and aggressive eater. Keeping true spiders is different than keeping most T species. My Huntsman is more active and harder to contain.

Its speed is unbelievable. Also, after it eats there are major cricket remains still left. Ts chew with their chelicera and not very much is left after they eat a cricket. I guess huntsman liquify the insides and feed on them while leaving much of the outsides as waste. It looks like a cricket zombie graveyard after a day.

When I was a kid a threw stunned flies into the web of a spider in my garage and watched the spider feed with morbid facination. Feeding the Huntsman triggered that memory.

 

[luther]

I kept this little guy for months. I assume he was male btw. He ran across our lounge one evening and I put him in a tall mason jar with a stick. He made a nice web overnight. He was a great character, feeding well on small crickets and anything I could catch.

 

[spot]

I found a little jumping spider on the last warm day before we got a freeze. That was about a month ago. He's still doing fine, eating like a piglet. If he's still alive when it warms up again, I'll put him back where I found him.

how are you keeping him? the only wc spider I have tried to keep was a jumping spider, but it was so active and was always up off the substrate (I think I used some peat) all the time I thought he was not very happy and I let him go after a day or two.

 

[Scylla]

I have him in a one pint deli cup. I cut out a circle in the lid and hot glued screen in it's place. There's potting soil covered by a piece of sheet moss, a water dish, and a few pottery fragments. He spends most of his time up top at the rim of the container. I also have 2 Phidippus octopunctatus and they spend the night webbed in at the top of their KK, and come out and prowl around during the day.

 

[spot]

ok, thanks for that, I might give it another try.

 

[Scylla]

What were you keeping it in, and what were you feeding it? My guy gets pinheads, as do the Phiddipus.

 

[spot]

I was keeping him in a deli cup, about 8 oz size, and also feeding him pinheads. I was just afraid he was not happy because he was up off the substrate, but he might have been looking for a place he felt secure, like the space up at the top near the edge, or maybe he was ambushing his prey! they are the coolest looking little spiders, I will have to keep an eye out for another one.

 

[lpw]

Presently, I'm "keeping" a Cheiracanthium sp. I say "keeping" because it's more like the spider chose to coexist with me... It lived comfortably in my house, possibly for most of its life, until I confined it to a humble deli cup to save it from being expelled into sub-zero temperatures by a less arachnoinclined housemate. Now that I think of it, the spider must have been living in the house longer than us... We just moved in last month... Starting to feel like an ungrateful settler here .

It feeds readily on pinhead crickets. I will most likely release it outside in the spring, assuming that it survives the winter.

In the past I have also kept some Theridiids, Salticids, and Lycosids. It was all in good fun.