Catching the Spider: 

 

Look in a wide variety of habitats depending on what sort of spider you are trying to catch. You'll find house spiders and widow spiders on window sills, cracks and corners inside andoutside the house. You can look for lynx spiders, crab spiders and jumping spiders on trees and bushes. Funnel weavers live in the grass, an! I have kept redbacks successfully in my classroom but they needed to be in a sealed container and only fed by me as I didn't want any of my students being bitten!! I don't recommend keeping the larger web spinning garden orb weavers  or argiopes as they can't weave a big enough web in a small container and their life span is limited to around 6mths anyway. Hunting spiders are fine - wolf spiders and fishing spiders can live in an aquarium just fine but huntsman spiders need to roam and wouldn't do well. You also need to be aware that a female spider can still lay an egg sac and have spiderlings without a male being present so you may end up with lots of babies running around your house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching the Spider: 

 

Look in a wide variety of habitats depending on what sort of spider you are trying to catch. You'll find house spiders and widow spiders on window sills, cracks and corners inside and outside the house. You can look for lynx spiders, crab spiders and jumping spiders on trees and bushes. Funnel weavers live in the grass, and wolf spiders live in the dirt and leaf litter or  under rocks. Tarantulas can be found in the desert and fishing spiders near streams and ponds. Use a jar and place it below the spider if its on a plant and it will drop into the jar. You can use mesh to sift through dirt and leaf litter. To catch a spider in a jar,  approach it quietly (no, they will not jump onto you), and place a transparent jar gently over it, so that it ends up in the jar, being careful not to crush its legs. Then slide a piece of firm paper or card between the jar and the surface on which the spider is sitting. Keep the card against the mouth of the jar until you are ready to put it into its new home.

 

Keeping the Spider:

 

Food: Spiders are really easy to care for, although in Winter it is often hard to find food for them. Spiders eat insects of all sort, the smaller spiders and spiderlings will eat fruit flies and flies while the larger ones will eat cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets up to small birds, frogs and even bats. You can attract fruit flies by leaving out some leftover scraps of moist food. You can even grow your own normal flies by leaving out some food to attract flies to lay their eggs in and then put the maggots in the spider's home. Crickets can be purchased at the pet shop. Spiders can go for long periods without food, find out how often your species needs to be fed and don't over feed it. Dead insects lying on the bottom will mean the tank needs cleaning and it's best not to disturb the spider too much.

 

Water: Some spiders need water and this can be provide in a lid with moistened cotton wool. You can also spray the tank but don't over moisten as mould will grow and the spider will die.

 

The Container:

 

Depending on the spider, you can keep it in anything from a jar to an aquarium. The size of the spider will dictate how big their container needs to be. The width of the tank should be two to three times wider than the leg span of the spider wide, and only as tall as the spider's leg span. Some spiders need very little air so the top can be fairly well sealed to avoid little fingers getting in or small spiders getting out but for spiders like tarantulas air circulation is important. Try and provide a habitat as close to the spiders normal habitat - put in dirt and leaves, rocks and grass and somewhere to hide. 2-3 inches of peat moss, soil, or vermiculite can be used as a substrate. Wood, cork bark, or half of a small clay flower pot can be used for a shelter/retreat.

 

You don't need to light the tank but can if you wish. Some spiders do have specific heating requirements though, so check this out depending on the spider you choose.