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Spider Egg Sacs Development
Name: Luta
Status: other
Grade: n/a
Location: NM
Country: USA
Date: Fall 2011
Question:
I took in a either catface or Jack-o lantern orb spider in to our house, in a terrarium under the assumption it was on its last legs and at the pleading of my niece.we had fed her a diet of crickets and mealworms while she was outside, she produced 2 eggsacs. She was no longer producing a healthy sticky web and was quite thin. We brought her in and the next day she produced a small healthy, sticky, web. we fed her a cricket and to our suprise the next day she produced a eggsac. My question is I know that egg sacs do not come alive until the spring, is that based on time or warmth? would not want 500 spiders in the house but we want to be reponsible to the mothers effort
Replies:
Luta
I found these phrases on the world wide web:
"One female may produce as many as 3,000 eggs in a series of several sacs
over a period of time. Eggs may hatch a few weeks later (or the following
spring)."
"Spiders may overwinter as eggs, spiderlings in the egg sac, immature
spiders living outside the egg sac or as adults."
The complete article from the University of Rhode Island can be found at:
http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/spiders.html
So depending on the type of spider you have, the eggs can hatch out in a few
weeks, or they may overwinter in the sacs as eggs and hatch out next spring.
Your duty to save one in a population of hundreds of millions is limited.
:)
Sincere regards,
Mike Stewart
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Update: June 2012
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