How to Care for Jumping Spiders---A Guide by Kozmic Dreams

Caring for Jumping Spiders

Jumping spiders can be very enjoyable pets. They are one of the most intelligent spiders on the planet and they will love interacting with you. They are also one of the friendliest types of spiders, so you don’t need to worry much about being bitten, as long as you handle them gently.

Catching a potential pet:

Jumping spiders are all around. You might even have some in your home already. Indoors, they love hanging out in sunny windows. Outdoors, they are also commonly found in the sun, often on brick walls or fences. They like the sun because it warms their muscles and they can move around faster. You will rarely find jumping spiders on rainy or cloudy days.

When you have located one, the best way to catch it is with a cup or other small container. With one hand, hold the cup in front of the spider, then try to coax it into the cup with the other hand. Do not grab or pluck at the spider as this could upset it. If you always allow the spider to walk to the place you want it to be, you will most likely never get bitten. If you squeeze the spider by picking it up directly, this is when it will get scared and might bite as a reflex.

Whenever you are handling your spider, you should also follow the same method to capture and release it.

Setting up a home:

Jumping spiders are pretty easy to please. While a small container will work, remember that it won’t provide much space for your spider to exercise. If you are someone with a lot of free time and you plan to play with your spider every day, this probably won’t matter much. If you will be leaving your spider in its cage most of the time, you might want to provide it with about a cubic foot of space or more. If you do not allow your spider to exercise, it will become weak and will die earlier than it should. They need space to practice their jumps and to run fast.

Make sure your container has adequate ventilation, but that the holes are small enough to keep the spider inside. Although you could certainly decorate its home with items like branches and leaves, these things do make it difficult to find your spider sometimes, as it will make resting sacs (little silken “sleeping bags” where it will stay most of the time) inside curled leaves, etc.

I have found that a simple, slightly crumpled napkin or paper towel can make the spiders just as content. They often make their resting sacs within the folds of the napkin.

Feeding your spider:

Generally, you should try to feed your spider an insect at least every 2-3 days, although most can probably survive at least a week without eating. Hard-shelled beetles should be avoided. They also don’t care much for pill bugs. From my observations, flies and crickets are their favorite meals. You may even find that your particular spider has its own individual preferences. I have found it very interesting to discover that certain pets of mine always sucked out the cricket legs first, while others preferred the head, and still others would start at the abdomen. Some would only eat crickets if they were very hungry and exhibited a preference for flies.

In the warm climates, you should be able to catch some flies outdoors with a butterfly net made of fine mesh (cheap kid’s butterfly nets work great). When it gets colder (or if you don’t like the idea of catching your own flies), many pet stores carry “small” crickets. The large ones are usually too big and intimidating for most jumping spiders, but they can easily tackle the small ones. I have had some jumpers who have taken on large crickets, but not many.

To feed your spider, just drop the insect in its cage and wait for it to be pounced upon. When the spider is done eating it, you will want to remove the insect shells so that they don’t stink up the cage.

Watering your spider:

Spiders breathe with structures called book lungs. They are much like pages of a book. If you put water on the abdomen of a spider, the water could get between the “pages” and it could suffocate. Spiders need very small droplets of water only. If you have a misting bottle, one small squirt of water mist on the side of its cage every few days should be plenty. Otherwise, just drip a few drops on the side of the cage. No puddles, or else your spider could drown.

Cohabitation and mating of spiders:

It is generally suggested that you have a separate cage for each spider. If you put two females together or two males together, they will most likely fight to the death.

If you are put a male and female together, the outcome can vary. When I have tried to mate spiders by putting them in the same cage, I always make sure they have extra flies and crickets around. Sometimes, even with this precaution, for some reason, the female spider still attacks and kills the male (on some occasions, before even mating with him). If you still want to have two living spiders at the end, it works best to put the male and female together only for a very short period (a few days or less), then separate them after mating has taken place.

Females can store sperm for up to a year, so it is sometimes possible that the female you captured has already been mated and is just waiting for the right time to lay her eggs. This is a reason she may not mate with the male that you set her up with and will attack and kill him instead. You may want to keep her for several months to see if she makes an egg sac on her own.

Care of Egg Sacs

If you are lucky enough to have a female spider lay an egg sac, you need to make sure it does not get too dry. I usually try to mist it once a week with a spray bottle (just a tiny little spray). However, you need to keep an eye out that the babies have not started emerging---you could drown them if you mist the sac during this period. If you want to get an idea of what to expect, click here to see babies emerging from the sac. Allow the spiders to exit the sac on their own---it may take as long as one month for all of the spiders to leave the sac. As they leave, they are easy to blow into a cup (just like you're going to blow out a candle, you can blow in the direction you want them to go). If you try to touch them and move them into a cup with your finger or piece of paper, you will almost certainly crush them---they're just too delicate to be handled. The air-blowing method never hurts them.

Care of Baby Spiders

It would be very difficult to care for a large number of babies, especially since they will become cannibalistic if not separated from one another. I suggest letting them go during mild weather (early morning or early evening). While many times, one sees adult spiders hanging out on the warm bricks and window ledges of houses, young spiders cannot handle the heat and will dry up within minutes (unfortunately, I found this out from experience, so please learn from my mistake!). Do not let them go in a sunny location. Try to find a place that will also offer shelter if it should rain. If you have a porch, I think that is a pretty good place to release them. I usually catch 10 in a cup, then set the cup outside and let them leave on their own. Sometimes they may stay in the cup for a few days in small groups.

The only way to raise young spiders is to find very tiny insects. This would be difficult if it weren't for pet stores that sell flightless fruit flies. You can also order them online if you cannot find a pet store that stocks them. The cultures will last for several weeks to a month and there are more than enough flies (I had to dump a lot outside because there were way more than I needed). To make sure that I kept babies that ate, I put flies in with 4-5 spiders at a time and then separated out the spiders that ate. I tried to give all the spiders a good first meal before their release, but some just didn't seem ready to eat. It is also a good idea to use the air-blowing method to handle fruit flies as they are also very easy to crush. The babies usually won't touch them unless they are moving around, so you don't want to try to feed them dead flies. Click here to see some babies eating their first flies.

As the spiders get larger, you can try some larger insects. However, you should avoid ants. They may seem small and harmless but their bite injects something called formic acid that can be toxic to spiders. I've seen ants devour live crickets and bite their legs right off. Also, beetles and roly-polies don't work so well because of their hard shells. They seem to prefer soft-bodied flies and crickets.

Good luck!

If you have any questions that were not answered here, feel free to ask me at kozmic3@yahoo.com.

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