Jumping spiders as pets

Well, I don't really have a pet at home, but at school, I have found a few jumping spiders hanging out on the walls and indoors, like in our science lab. They are everywhere, and even though almost all of my classmates don't like them and freak out when they see them, I enjoy them and end up handling them and putting them in temporary containers for a while. Currently, I have a suspected female Phiddipus Audax who is still fairly young as she still has her orange markings. I have her inside an upside down cup in our science lab on the counter. It isn't very big, so I shouldn't keep her for much longer as there isn't a whole lot of room in there for her to move about. I feed her crickets every couple days (my teacher has lots of other critters that eat crickets too) and she is housed near a sink, so I put my finger under the water and then drip a little water in the cup for her. So far, she has been eating and drinking just fine and sadly, I haven't been able to witness her catch her prey. I have seen jumping spiders pounce on their food on Youtube videos, but to see it in real life is much more exciting.

My teacher also has a couple black widows in a flask with a piece of tape over it and a few days ago, we tested to see if a jumping spider would kill a black widow. I have heard that it is possible, but didn't know before. I also know that they do kill wolf spiders and brown recluse spiders, and I have seen it happen. So we put the jumper in with the widows and waited for a long time for something to happen. Both the widows were in the bottom of the flask and the jumper stayed at the top and every once in a while, she would crawl down to the bottom and watch the widows. After a while, the smaller widow of the two managed to create a web ladder to the top where the jumper was. And of course, the jumper got caught in the webbing and was starting to get rapped up. I was a bit upset and felt that I had to do something about it. I found a piece of steel wire that was just small enough to fit through the air holes in the tape and I managed to get the widow to go to the bottom and I pulled the tape up and put the wire in front of the jumper. It grabbed the wire with its legs and fangs. I was amazed at how much gripping power it had with it's fangs. Unfortunately, the wire kept slipping out of its mouth and I kept trying again and again. I finally got the jumping spider out and covered the top up again just as the smaller widow came back to the top again. I left the jumping spider alone in it's over turned cup for the rest of the day. I happen to be a teacher's kid, so I stay after school for a few hours everyday and I was able to see the jumping spider then. It had unrapped its self and was sitting in the bottom of the cup. And it was fine. Amazingly, the black widow hadn't bitten the jumper. It is now a week later and that jumper is still sitting in its over turned cup chasing crickets and just hanging out. Now what we did here is not really recommended to do to your pet jumping spider. I think that they are really neat spiders and they shouldn't be just thrown into a death trap.

I really like them and even though I'm not allowed to keep them at home, my teacher so far has allowed me to keep one in the science lab next to his class room and I hope that it will get to stay a while. I also hope to find it a bigger home, as the cup it is in is too small for it. My teacher hopes that the black widows that he is keeping will die sooner or later and hopefully we can use that flask for the jumping spider and it can sit on the counter with all of his other cool creatures so long as he doesn't need it for any science experiments. This page shows you how to take care of jumping spiders. The person writting about them really seems to know what they are doing and I think that they have nailed the "how tos", like how to handle them, their habits and their temperaments. If you have the intentions in capturing one and need some good ideas of what to do, this is the page to go looking for ideas. I have read it a few times and I like it.


If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

My friends will appriciate your attention as well!

Bills cars and computers
Graspvitality
Nathan3000368