Posted by Malcolm Forde on August 26, 2005

Q: I found a small jumping spider in my house. I think it is a baby. I heard that I should feed it small ants since it is small. But what kind of environment in a jar should I set up for it and what can things can it eat?

Thanks for your time.

Malcolm

A: Jumping spiders come in a variety of sizes so unless you know the kind of spider you have, you have no way to know if it is fully grown or young and still growing. Feeding your spider is going to be a bit difficult unless you can find small, live insects. Although ants sound like a good choice, they're usually avoided by predators since they have special chemicals that most animals don't like - I'd avoid ants.

I hope you're able to keep your spider in a large jar (a quart jar is probably too small)or even an aquarium. Be sure there are some sticks in there so it has many places to crawl around on. If you can make an insect net (you can make one from a coat hanger and some loose-weave cloth) you can sweep grassy areas to catch insects. These can then be placed in the jar and your spider can pick and choose what it wants to eat.

Jumping spiders have good eyesight and hunt their prey by stalking. You should be able to watch closely as it hunts its food and really get to know a lot about it through your observations. These are really interesting and fun spiders so enjoy!

John Wiessinger ( August 29, 2005)