Wolf spider with egg sac - advice?

[arizonablue]

Turns out my seven-legged wolf spider is a lady, and she is now carting around an egg sac. This was rather unexpected, but I want to let her hatch the babies. However, I've never tried raising spider babies before.

My plan is to herd her into a little container with a mesh lid before they hatch so I don't end up with tiny baby spiders all over my apartment once they start leaving mama's back. Presumably they'll eat whatever I feed her while they're riding around (crickets), but after they start hopping off on their own, what do I feed them? Fruit flies? Pinhead crickets? Should I just gather them up as they leave her and put them outside to do their thing? (They're a local species.)

Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[chanda]

Make sure the container you put them in has a really fine mesh top and no air holes. Baby wolf spiders can climb glass or plastic easily, they are not deterred by a ring of Vaseline around the top of the cage, and they can fit through tiny ventilation holes as well as through the mesh of a standard screen top. What worked for me were non-ventilated deli cups with the papery mesh lids that we also use for fruit fly cultures. Also, they will climb to the top of the cage and hang from the top, so if they're in a cage with a sliding screen top, it can be tricky to open the lid without having a few escapees.

As for feeding, they will eat fruit flies, pinhead crickets - and each other. Once they've molted a couple of times, you may want to release most of the young since they're a local species anyway.

Removing them from the mother can be tricky because once they're close to being ready to leave her back, they can scatter in all directions at once if she is disturbed (like if you try coralling her in a catch cup.) What I ended up doing with mine was rounding them up with a paintbrush and piece of paper after they left - but that can be pretty time consuming.

 

[The Snark]

What I can't figure out is the baby Lycos are expert acrobats like @Chandra mentions. Then a couple of molts down the road and poof! Utterly unable to defy gravity. Even a rough concrete wall proves a supreme challenge to them.
I'd like to see an up close comparison between Lyco and Sparassid claws.

 

[arizonablue]

Make sure the container you put them in has a really fine mesh top and no air holes. Baby wolf spiders can climb glass or plastic easily, they are not deterred by a ring of Vaseline around the top of the cage, and they can fit through tiny ventilation holes as well as through the mesh of a standard screen top. What worked for me were non-ventilated deli cups with the papery mesh lids that we also use for fruit fly cultures. Also, they will climb to the top of the cage and hang from the top, so if they're in a cage with a sliding screen top, it can be tricky to open the lid without having a few escapees.

As for feeding, they will eat fruit flies, pinhead crickets - and each other. Once they've molted a couple of times, you may want to release most of the young since they're a local species anyway.

Removing them from the mother can be tricky because once they're close to being ready to leave her back, they can scatter in all directions at once if she is disturbed (like if you try coralling her in a catch cup.) What I ended up doing with mine was rounding them up with a paintbrush and piece of paper after they left - but that can be pretty time consuming.

Thank you for the advice! I've got a medium-sized deli cup with a single air hole that I can tape some fine mesh or fabric over that I think will keep them all corralled. I can always open it outside in case of escapees. I think I'll try pinhead crickets and then give a handful of the spiderlings to my friend to keep his garden bug-free. Might keep one and then let the rest go. I'll herd her in there before the sac opens and should be good to go.