A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall The Critter Corner Social spider cage

Any one interested seeing a social spider cage being made?

I'm going to be making one just now, so should I take photos?

i'm interested. i like spiders

I want to see pictures.

I like that last picture under Clawed African Frog.
Did you by any chance build that aquarium? It looks all glass, with no mettle edges holding the glass together. It looks like it's in space...which is always cool to me!!!

i would like to see a pix myself eventhough i do not like spiders

It's amazingly simple... :)

Well heres the setup =
1 Old bird cage (I found it in my shed and no I don't know how old it is :) )
1 piece of wool (Temporary, going to be removed )
1 small spider nest ('Start small, get big' setup :) )



I tied the wool to the cage and made sure the spiders nest was suspended in the middle of the cage

Basically you leave the spiders to build onto the cage until the wool is no longer needed

I wish I could say yes to making that cage, I saw it at a pet store . The cage is glued together with powerful waterproof glue

I had to release the african clawed frogs since the cats wouldn't leave them alone :mad:

Thanks :)

Heres a pic I took tonight, I had a torch at the top of the cage

I'll say they are in their pre-teens. They were originally in the nest when I first put it in. The funny thing is they will never leave their nest unless it's a mother full of eggs(In order to start a new nest) or they lack food. I'm just keeping them in the hope they will spread at a later stage since they do belong here

That picture, where you're holding the torch over it, is really cool.

Triss, I think they are called communal spiders ( Stegodyphus sp ) and they might end up covering the whole cage in the end :)

Thanks Wrennie :) I also thought it looked cool :)

Update :

I noticed they had started to spin more web on the sides now which I was really happy with since thats quite important for a stable nest once I remove the wool


And heres some more pics

Close

Closer

Closest

They sure have for their size

Just wondering, is that cage in your house or kept outside? (I am a wimp, spiders freak me out, but I LOVE looking at your nature pics!)

Holy cr@p, spiders scare me to death. I used to keep a can of Spider-ban in my pocket when I worked at a dairy farm, I was always a ball of nerves at that job.

I've got goose bumps all over now.

OMG...Very interesting but I don't like spiders...I'm shuddering just looking at the pic.

I'm with Triss..is there a purpose for the spider cage or do people who have them just like spiders? EWWW creepy crawlies.

Hehe I keep them outside though I'm tempted to bring them inside since they are good mozzie hunters :)

Update:
I've removed the wool successfully (The reason why I don't keep the wool on is because ants can use it to reach the spiders) :) I'm surprised they have built so quickly ... I'm going to upload some more pics right now

Here are the latest photos of them

awsome pics! my fav all time spiders are the black and yellow garden spiders! thats pretty neat you can watch em like that in the nest,
i want to order preying mantis eggs to watch em hatch,and let loose in my garden, if i do il have to order em by the end of may,

EEEEWWWWW! interesting, but EEEEEWWWW! i will mess with snakes without knowing what kind it is, but, will pee my pants when it comes to spiders!

I actually don't have an issue with spiders... and then I saw your pictures. *Got a few shivers* I think it's very interesting! I have to admit, I've never seen someone do this before. Where did you get the idea?