Spider and her babies

jemimarose

Silly question alert! I want to put up the paddling pool for the children, however, it has been stored badly and when I took it out there are many insects who have found their home in it over the winter. Specifically, a spider and her babies. The babies are tiny and only just hatched, and I don't want to disturb them. However, I do want to put the paddling pool up! 

Is it possible to transfer her and her babies somewhere? I wonder if I attempted to do this if it would mean she would leave and the babies would die. 

I really hate to hurt anything at all, and so I do care about what happens to them. I even considered buying another paddling pool, but then this adds to plastic waste! 😝

There's probably no one who can help... but thought I'd put the question out there anyway! 

pansyface

Hello, fellow spider lover!

Some mother spiders guard their babies and some don’t.

Although they guard them, I don’t believe that I’ve come across one that actually supplies them with food.

I think if you open out the pool and leave it propped up in a sheltered spot they will literally fly away on the breeze and begin their lives elsewhere.

It’s nice to find someone who appreciates spiders. 😊

jemimarose

Hello! Ah, it's lovely to meet you who cares abut spiders, too. 

Thanks for your advice. What I did last night was pop the pool a little way under a shelter, but she's found a crevice to hide in and yes, it appears that she is guarding her babies. 

What do baby spiders eat?!

I'll do what you have said and put it in the shade somewhere to see if they go... 

Thank you. X

pansyface

I suspect that baby spiders eat any other living thing that they can catch, including their brothers and sisters. 😕

Dovefromabove

And even in the most favourable of circumstances, not all will survive ... that's why there's so many of them ... they're a vital food source for small birds ... everyone has to eat something ... it's what makes the world work.  
  

jemimarose

OK, I think I need to put the children first then. 😂

jemimarose

Spiderlings and dispersal

After hatching from the eggs the spiderlings stay within the egg sac until they undergo their first moult - their small cast skins can be seen inside the old egg sac. After this they emerge, having cut a neat hole in the sac with the fangs (perhaps aided by a silk digesting fluid and sometimes helped by the female from outside). The spiderlings cluster together initially, still living largely upon the remnants of yolk sac in their abdomens.

After several days (or weeks in the case of some mygalomorph spiders) and sometimes another moult, the spiderlings begin to disperse gradually away. This is necessary to avoid competition for food and prevent cannibalism among the hungry siblings. Some species, especially ground and burrow dwellers, disperse by walking, often over only relatively short distances. Others, especially foliage dwellers and many web builders, but also wolf and mouse spiders, disperse by bridging and ballooning. Bridging is a means of travelling by repeated climbing up through foliage and then dropping down on a silk line to cross to adjacent branches, often with some breeze-assisted swinging. Ballooning involves ascending to a high point on foliage and letting out fine silk lines that catch the breeze and eventually gain enough lift to waft the spider up and away. 

jemimarose

I found the above, and think they are still in the clustering together stage. I may monitor them, hopefully soon they'll go! 

didyw

How thoughtful of you @jemimarose.  Could you not involve the children in seeing what happens to the spiderlings?  And if they show no signs of clearing off as you move the pool about and open it up, would it be possible to scoop them up into a bit of newspaper or something and place them elsewhere?
I like spiders too but those ones with long skinny legs who make horrible cobwebs get hoovered up occasionally.  

Fran IOM

@didyw.   How could you hoover them up!  . I'm mad enough to talk to those in my shed and there are enough of them. Until I took up gardening on a larger scale I would never have thought I would like spiders plus many other insects. 

didyw

They are cellar spiders @Fran IOM, spiders of very little brain.  Certainly not the sort you could have a conversation with.