Cue the obligatory reference to Hinterland Who’s And the Crack Spider’s B*tch...
A few years back, Mr Suave and I were thinking about moving to SE Calgary and another posted commented that “the south-east is lousy with spiders”. He wasn’t wrong. I’ve had one hanging out with me in my Covid work-from-home office space since Christmas. I’ve heard that house spiders are beneficial and you shouldn’t kill them. So this guy’s been getting bigger and bigger and watching me work out my safety stocks and economic order point projections.
I have no idea where he came from, when he hatched, or why he’s chosen to hang out with me so long. But my question is this - what the heck is this guy eating? He’s easily tripled in size since I first noticed him. He started out as a wee speck - now he’s a full on spider. I haven’t noticed an uptick in cobwebs around the house. I don’t have fruit flies, aphids, or any (visible to the eye) bugs that a spider could be catching and eating. So what’s feeding my arachnid buddy? Do they eat tiny dust mites or tardigrades?
TLDR: What do house spiders eat, in winter, in Calgary, when they’re tiny and there no bugs to catch?
Probably things like firebrats, silverfish, and various small bottles and what not that come into our homes, heck it might be eating other spiders. In the crawl space under our sun room there is a spider that seems to eat ants judging by the several hundred desiccated body's left webbed all over.
I love my house spiders. Seen lots of cool ones, I don’t kill them or relocate them unless they end up in my bed. Which they haven’t, at least not that I was aware of.
They’re super cool and eat bugs, what’s not to love?
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I've got a friend who's into spiders, and she says that they don't need to eat much at all, and some can go for up to 6 months between meals (though apparently that's pushing it). Also, while there are less bugs around, there aren't 'no bugs', so they manage to get by when the eating is sparse.
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I love my house spiders. Seen lots of cool ones, I don’t kill them or relocate them unless they end up in my bed. Which they haven’t, at least not that I was aware of.
They’re super cool and eat bugs, what’s not to love?
My cat loves them. To eat. She helps keep my house spider free.
Crawls into your nose at night to feed on your boogers.
Just kidding. Spiders have an incredibly low metabolism and it's not difficult for them to go months without eating. The only thing they do need a somewhat steady supply of is water/moisture. Otherwise, he's probably limiting his movement (energy expenditure) until some tasty insects arrive again in the spring/summer.
The stink bugs who try to hide in my family's house in BC over the winter are often in for a rude awakening lol.
Last edited by Hey Connor, It's Mess; 04-03-2021 at 01:27 PM.
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ugh. my wife absolutely refuses to coexist with spiders. So last year we got Buzz Boss, which ends up creating a "barrier". Usually, I see at least a dozen or more wolf spiders, in the early spring. So far this year, just one.
I love larger spiders. The little jumpy ones, though, kinda freak me out... lol
House Spiders
