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Comments & ID Thoughts
This spider took up residence in my bathroom, and built her web on my trashcan. I've since had to move her, because she liked to hide under the pedal which opened the lid and I didn't want her to get squished!
My bathroom is quite bug-free and she really wouldn't have stayed/survived here for very long if I hadn't been feeding her. I've relocated her to a box, which she seems to like, and I feed her ants.
She isn't too big, probably could fit on the tip of my thumb, and has a very interesting web design! Her web is pretty basic, very fine and not super well knit, and it's a bit hard for me to drop food into it for her because it sometimes falls right through the cracks. One interesting thing I've noticed is how she seems to make anchor points on the ground, which prey will sometimes run into and get stuck, and then she will grab the line and pull it up to her main web, like she's fishing! She also seems to be quite clean, and will clear her web of the prey remains when she's done with them by dropping them on the ground below the web.
For anyone wondering, I've taken to calling her Miss Ma'am! (Sometimes just Miss and sometimes just Ma'am). I'd love to know what she is so I could find out more about her species. Thank you!
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Aug 3, 2022
- Photographed: Jun 13, 2022
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Indiana, United States
- Spotted Indoors: Other
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
Also, I do not know if this spider is actually female or not. I just have a habit of referring to all spiders in webs as female, and to roamers as male.
I’m not an expert but I think what you have here is a very pretty little steatoda triangulosa..https://bugguide.net/node/view/2110906
I think you’re right, that looks just like her! I never noticed it before because she’s so little, but the dark spots look like rows of hearts. <3
I agree with @Nod .
On a side note, how many ants have you fed her? When keeping these in the past I’ve found that they’ll pass on ants a majority of the time.
Ants are almost exclusively what I’ve been feeding her! Thankfully we have a good variety where I live, so I can find plenty of sizes on my patio. Previously I would give her a few little ones (not all at once but over the course of an hour or so) but she’s moved up to the bigger ones now!
Cool! Few animals eat ants. They don’t taste good. That’s what I read, not personal experience. Yesterday I saw a S. triangulosa with a ant as prey. My neighbors have big problems with ants in their houses. I have no ants at all and I think I have my free-range spiders to thank for it. 🙂 That’s interesting about the fishing behavior. I’ll watch for that. My husband lets the insect corpses pile up under the spiders like spider trophies.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who enjoys having “free range” spiders around the house! Miss Ma’am used to be free range until we had house guests who would be using the bathroom, and I was too embarrassed to try and explain that she was a friend/pet. lol I’m really thankful they keep their webs so clean. As much as I appreciate her little “trophies” I like being able to clean up her living area, haha. She’s situated her web up off the ground in her new home, so i can sneak a pair of tweezers under it without… Read more »
I wanted to update this post and say that getting her identified has REALLY helped me to take care of her! Learning that S. triangulosa eat pill bugs has been a major breakthrough, as those are much easier for me to get a hold of quickly and regularly. The only spiders I’ve ever taken care of in the past were agelenopsis (grass spiders) which would refuse to eat them!
Thanks for the tip! Yes Pillbugs are nice slow-moving feeder insects, I didn’t know my Steatoda would eat them. It’s interesting to feed grasshoppers to Grass Spiders in late Summer when the sheet webs are around. Watch how they can’t jump because the web isn’t taught enough and too slippery. The webs are slippery funnels, not sticky. I had too much entertainment feeding ants to antlions when I was a kid!
Coming back for a final update on my dear Miss Ma’am. She passed away a month or two ago, I believe it was just from old age. She was so much fun to care for and was a fan favorite when I had visitors over. I’ll miss her, but I’m happy to know I gave her a good life. Here’s a link to a reddit post I made with up-close pictures of her after she died. ❤️
https://www.reddit.com/r/vultureculture/comments/13ozmgn/my_first_pet_spider_passed_away_recently_and_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1