Feeding an Orb Weaver Spider

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

I love feeding spiders and watching them do their thang - fascinating. But a lot of times I'll try to toss a moth into the web and it doesn't snag - just flies/falls right through. Depending on the spider, you usually need a small & light bug for it to work.

Of course, this is from the same guy who, when in college, used to go down with a friend to the Walmart and when no one was looking in the pet department, take a net, dip out a goldfish and drop in into the tank beside it, which contained the Oscars, and count how many seconds before goldie went bye-bye. Oh boy did we get a kick out of that. :evil:

In the house, all spiders except fiddlebacks get to live. I figure if the other spiders clean up the houseflies and whatnot, it's that much less for the fiddlebacks to eat and thrive upon.

 

[HVYCHVY]

A few years back, we had hour long shots at GRDA. I sat there all night watching some kind of spider spin its web by one of the lights. It was the coolest watching it wrap up a moth or two, repair the web, the dew setting on it, etc. As long as mama nature is outside and not in my area, I let them b.

 

[pinkhamr]

Have one on the back porch (in the corner) who gets fed every night with small moths .... seems to like it. Gone during the daylight hours.

 

[redmax51]

I feed them occasionally.I'm not going to buy food but if I should catch some unsuspecting insect he might find himself in a web.

 

[rebelracer79]

if we just had one it wouldnt be to bad, but there seems to be 3 for every one I kill, really gets old walking to my deer stand and getting a face full of web!

 

[Kingmarine]

Ughhh. Don't do spiders well, or snakes for that matter.

 

[tm8634]

I feed them occasionally.I'm not going to buy food but if I should catch some unsuspecting insect he might find himself in a web.

me too...iv got other this i waste my money on....

 

[Shirley]

At my house they get a good meal of RAID! I hate spiders. They can all hurt you. Some with venom and others just scare you and make you hurt yourself.

I agree with this one, spiders creep me out! But hey to each their own, rite? If you like to feed them go on ahead, I will scream and run the other way! lol

 

[NikatKimber]

I enjoy feeding them too. I think it must be the scientist in you Cohiba. 'Cause I like watching how they wrap the bugs up, and where they bite and such. If they make webs in the door way though, I'll take it down several nights in row, hoping they'll move. If not..

I've been seeing a few taratulas around here lately. 4-5 just on the roads in the last month or so.

 

[Sniper John]

Hey All,

I'm throwing out a curve ball on this one.....just go with it.

Are we(my wife and myself) the only ones who like to feed the native species of spiders.....the Orb Weaver?

Oh I can up you one Cohiba. I told my wife about the big Garden Spiders at my hunting lease. Much bigger and brighter than the Orb Weavers. She had me catch about a half dozen of them to bring home and turn loose in the shrubs and cactus around her rock garden. She actually went to the pet store and bought a bag of crickets. If someone could have seen us trying to pitch crickets into those spider webs, they would have fell on the ground laughing. It turned out to be a good thing. We had wasps that would not give up trying to build nests under the back eave of my house and shop building. The wasps were attracted to the same plants that the spiders had set up home on. The Garden Spiders wiped out those wasps over two or three weeks time.