Pet Jumping Spider Care Sheet

12/24/2024- Under construction as I convert mantis template page to jumping spider care sheet

Preface

This care sheet is likely to be the longest one you may (or may not) ever work through. An entire book could easily be written on the topic and I have necessarily condensed everything down to what I consider to be the essential points, but even in typing it, I deleted frequently to keep it concise. Then again, a lot of points are repeated intentionally because it can be difficult for new keepers to understand concepts without overall context. For example, it is never so simple as to say feed your jumping spider every day. The size of prey your offer dictates how often it needs to eat, and the temperature you keep it at will affect how quickly it metabolizes its food.

Remember that experience is the best teacher and your spider will actually teach you most of what you need to know, and through watching it you will learn its habits and preferences. These are marvelous creatures, adapted to survive in conditions well outside of the "perfect" habitat you are going to create for it.

I wanted to write a care sheet to help support all our customers and general visitors to this website, which I put up in 1997, and year before Google was a search engine. I didn't read any other jumping spider care sheets, or books. I don't even know what else is out there. Having kept so many jumping spiders over the years, this care sheet honestly just wrote itself and felt like common sense as I typed it, and partly because I have kept such a wide variety of arthropods and there is a lot of crossover in the general foundation of their care.

That said, it can be very easy to lose perspective on what other people who are new to the hobby are experiencing as they dip their toes into pet bugs keeping for the very first time. Taking an even further step back, it is even difficult for me to imagine being afraid of jumping spiders at this point, having worked with thousands and thousands of individuals, across many species. Though they are capable of it, I have never been bitten by a jumping spider and it seems almost inconceivable to me that one would bite a person. Of course, that is because they hold me. I take it upon myself to let them be in control when I am interacting with them. This too you will learn, through repetition and experience, if you want to. And I know from 28 years of having the website, and fielding countless emails, that many of you are here to work through your debilitating fear of spiders, and today you are leaning into possibility and hope. And the way is forward, and I write this partly for you so that you are not alone in your journey.

Introduction

Jumping spiders are second to tarantulas as the most popular group of pet spiders. Salticidae is the family of spiders that jumping spiders are in, and they are the largest family of spiders. Their vision as a group is also the best among spider families.

These are diurnal spiders (rather than nocturnal) and they do not directly use web to capture their prey, like many other families of spiders. They are out during the warmer parts of the day, and in nature and captivity will tend to retreat to a nearby silken hammocks they have built, when it gets dark. They use their silk to build their hammocks and they regularly drop down a fixing anchor point with their dragline, that familiar line of silk that trails behind a spider as it moves through the world. Before a jumping spider jumps, they tend to fix this anchoring point, just in case they miss their intended target. That way, if they fall, they have a safety net of sorts and can crawl back up to where they were, or at least swing to a nearby point of safety. Or, they can continue to release more silk and descend to the ground.

Females live longer than males. Males tend to live more on the order of a year, while females in the genus Phidippus will tend to live 2 to 3.

The life cycle begins with the egg, which hatches into a series of larval stages collectively known as the post-embryo (stage). The most familiar one is the last one, which hobbyists call EWL's or eggs with legs. In this stage, the spiders look globular, like eggs, but they are mobile to some degree and move around a little bit. When the EWL's molt, they become first instar and it is at this point that they are called a spiderling and are capable of hunting and feeding. At some point after the spiderling molts a few times and becomes a sort of "medium" size, it is then typically then referred to as a juvenile. Because it is an arbitrary category that we use to communicate generalities to each other, there is not necessarily any specific instar that a spiderling molts into to be in the category "juvenile." It is sort of like the general idea that a human who turns 18 is suddenly an adult. There is really no significant difference between a 17 year and 364 day old human, and a 18 year and 1 day old human, but one is considered a minor and the other an adult.

Once the juvenile jumping spider approaches maturity, if it often referred to as a subadult. Some people will delineate if further and call a spider that is two molts from adulthood a sub-subadult. Some people will call the stage before maturity the penultimate stage, and the final molt the penultimate molt. When a subadult molts to maturity, the spider is then an adult and its sexual organs and characters are fully formed. While female tarantulas will continue to molt and grow to some extent, after reaching sexual maturity, jumping spider adults never molt again whether they are males or females and so the only way your spiders will look larger after maturity is if they bulk up from heavy feeding.

Care for jumping spiders is much easier than raising a cat or dog, or a child and so you've got this. Many care sheets you find on the Internet will make it way more complicated than it needs to be (and yet be a fraction of the length of this care sheet, lol). And so my care sheet begins, below, and this is based on all the years I've worked with jumping spiders and other pet arthropods and networked with hobbyists from the earliest days of the Internet.

Sections:

Preface & Introduction
Buying Live Jumping Spiders
Housing/Habitats
Live Foods or Feeders
Molting
Breeding
Conclusion

Buying Live Jumping Spiders

The jumping spider hobby is growing almost exponentially with the popularity of them as pets being driven mainly by social media where influencers name each of their jumping spiders and let you know what Buttercup is up to every day. This exposes many new people to the world of keeping "bugs" as pets and for many people, a jumping spider is their first pet arthropod and they are completely new to both care requirements for "bugs" and purchasing living things online. And there can be a pretty steep learning curve.

One thing I see a lot of is well-intentioned sellers essentially doing a background check on you, requiring you to fill out a questionaire before you "adopt" (buy, usually at a high price) one of their spiders. This probably helps to establish a relationship between buyer and seller and ensures that a buyer has done their due diligence in researching care.

There are many new sellers and breeders coming into and leaving the hobby all the time. Many people love their pets and are able to breed them and have dreams of making some side cash through doing something they enjoy. That doesn't necessarily mean they are cut out to run a business though, and so an established seller with a good reputation is the best bet.

When you go to make a purchase, make absolutely sure that you read everything the seller has posted on the topic.You should see the species type, the size/age, what it is feeding on currently, and you may also want to know if it is captive-bred (CB) or wild caught (WC). You should review their terms of service page, and shipping options. You should take not of whether they offer a live arrival guarantee (LAG), and what the fine print of that is. If you have questions that aren't answered on the terms of service page, ask the seller for clarification.

When you receive your jumping spider, look for it in the shipping cup and get a visual on it. If you can't see it, just wait a few moments for it to appear as the light of day will likely draw it out, once it is out of the dark box for a few moments.

Before you open the container, I recommend that you move yourself to the floor in the middle of a room. A smooth floor, like most kitchens have, is best. The point here is to maximize the visibility you have if your spider jumps out, as you beging to transfer it from the shipping container to its new home/enclosure. Aside offering you visibility, the middle of the room is a good place to be since there are no hiding places. Avoid carpet, if possible, as it can be hard to see a small fuzzy spider on it.

A lot of people think that jumping spiders move more quickly than humans, but they don't. If you are in the middle of the room, it will be almost impossible for it to repeatedly get away from you. When given the chance, yes, they will jump a few times but they soon calm down, typically after a couple jumps less than 6 inches, and will tend to "run" more than jump, especially on a flat surface like the floor in a room. I've never seen a jumping spider jump more than 8 or so inches over a flat surface. They can only cover some real distances if they are jumping from a higher point to a lower point, below. Another way of saying this is that they will jump forward six inches and fall downwards to the ground and if that's from a six foot high shelf, you can argue that your spider jumped six feet and six inches. 😉

As you begin the transfer process from the shipping cup to the new home tank, I recommend that you have a "catch cup" nearby. This is simply a transparent cup that you can use to cover your spider if it starts to move too quickly. Being clear, you will still be able to see where the spider is exactly, beneath it. Be careful, of course, not to move in a hasty way and accidentally squish your spider with the edge of the cup. In the middle of the room you are a lonnng way from any hiding spot and so you have a little time to carrrefully set the cup down on top of the spider. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself and if you are prepared with these instructions, all should be well and good. And this will prooobably all go a lot smoother than you think.

If you have the catch cup on top of the spider, get a sheet of paper and slip that between the floor and opening of the cup. Then you can flip it up and resume moving the spider into its new home.

Also read the molting section below, with respect to how much you handle or exercise your new pet jumping spider, in the beginning. They need some time to acclimate to their new surroundings and though it would be a stretch to say that handling stresses them out, there are other important things they need to be doing in their new home, like nesting.

Housing/Habitats

Let's begin by stating that mantises are predatory insects that feed on other live bugs. All mantises are cannibalistic, though there are species in the hobby that are considered more "communal.” All hatchling mantises are okay to keep together, though after they shed their skin into the second instar many species will start to show an interest in preying upon their own kind.

An example of species that are communal are ghost mantises. Chinese and giant Asian mantises are both highly cannibalistic. If you are planning on keeping mantises in the same enclosure, plan to lose a few. Provide plenty of surface area in the cage through additional "furniture" in the form of sticks, bark, etc. Textured, vertically placed items also provide the perches for the mantises to molt from. If very consistent food is not offered, the mantises will begin to show an interest in each other.

The size of your pet's habitat is an important factor for success. Young mantises do better is small enclosures for a couple reasons. It is easier for them to find their food and it is easier for you to know whether the food is still present or not. Creating a habitat is a fun part of the pet mantis experience. You can design your cage around the type of mantis you are raising. A silk orchid flower, for example, is a nice addition to an orchid mantis cage. An assortment of dried leaves and branches provides for an interesting decor for a dead-leaf mantis.

The often-quoted rule of thumb for cage size factors in the length of your mantis. The cage should be 3X as high and 1 to 2X as wide (as your mantis is long). Exceptions to this rule are several: For a breeding pair, a ten gallon habitat container or larger is recommended. I also tend to keep 1st instar nymphs that have just hatched from an egg case all together. Cannibalism is rare at that stage, especially if you keep a good supply for fruit flies available.

I like to provide as much ventilation as possible for my mantids, but the trick is to keep the humidity up, so cross-ventilation is a key factor. I drill about eight 1/8 inch holes in them on different sides to provide cross-ventilation. I also put a piece of plastic screen, etc. along at least one "side" of the vial. It should scale the entire height of the vial so that the mantid will find it when it is ready to molt. You'll probably find that the mantid spends most of its time here though anyway.

Temperature requirements for habitats vary slightly with some species, but room temperature is just fine for most. Tropical species do better in warmer habitats. Temperature plays its most important role during the incubation stage of the mantid egg-cluster (or ootheca…plural= oothecae...AKA egg case). Some species will hatch at room temperature while others prefer 90 degrees F, and still others require diapause (a seasonal hibernation period).

Life Cycle

Egg cases (oothecae) of tropical species typically take about 2 months to hatch. They should be kept about 10-15 degrees above room temperature, if possible. If kept at room temperature, they may take longer to hatch. I recommend keeping the ootheca of the average "backyard" species at about 75-80 degrees F.

Tropical species may do well in that range or slightly warmer. You must occasionally expose the ootheca to a moderate level of humidity. Some people take this to an extreme and by gauges to fine tune the humidity, but this isn't necessary. Egg cases are somewhat susceptible to drying out, but occasionally misting the incubation container will keep this from happening.

Never mist so heavily that the sides of the container don't dry out after a few hours. One mistake people make in overwintering oothecae indoors is a failure to expose them to some humidity. If you find an ootheca outdoors, consider that it is a native species that is used to surviving your local winters with all the seasonal patterns of humidity. Dehydration is the number one cause of them not hatching, although if there is too much moisture in the incubation chamber/container, mold may develop on or in the ootheca. Also, it is best to hang the ootheca from the top of the container, as the mantises will use gravity to aid their hatching (see picture, above).

Many people email me with questions about egg cases that their native, wild-caught mantises have laid. These species do need a diapause (overwintering period). I recommend you place the mantis egg case in a paper lunch bag and set it in a covered area, outdoors. The paper bag will allow the egg case exposure to both the normal temperatures and humidity that egg cases would normally experience in your particular climate. It is advisable to check on the case occasionally, just to make sure it hasn't hatched. Baby mantises will starve in 5-9 days (approximately), if unfed. More information about caring for the young is detailed in the food section, below.

Click the thumbnail photo below for a larger picture showing the direction a mantid cluster is typically laid in nature. It is not terribly important to hang them the same way in captivity, although it may facilitate an easier exit in dry or less than perfect conditions. The individual cells form a slight C-shaped curve.

The C should be pointed with the opening down, so that it looks like this- n. Okay, that's the best letter I could find on the keyboard to illustrate the direction and it's very exaggerated. Another method is to feel the texture of the central (light-colored) band.

Running your finger along the band, it should feel smooth from top to bottom and rough from bottom to top. If this doesn't make sense, try it. You'll feel it (not all species' oothecae exhibit this textural characteristic). I recommend hanging the ootheca at an angle (somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees, is best) with the band facing down. Gravity will aid the hatching nymphs. Note: many mantis species have ootheca that are so unusual in shape and structure that it is impossible to know what direction to hang it. Even within a single species shape and size are variable.

If in doubt, don't worry too much. You can glue the ootheca to the side of a container or the top using a low-heat glue gun. Or glue it to the top, but be sure that whatever surface you glue it against, it provides for the following two conditions. One, that the egg case is against a non-breathable surface. Egg cases are sensitive to drying out and this is probably the most common cause of cases that don't hatch. Two, that it is hung 3-4 inches or more from the bottom of the habitat so that the hatching mantises can descend (hatch) properly.

For young hatchlings (also called nymphs) as well as juveniles and adults, I put a paper towel down on the bottom, and wet it moderately, although various other water-retaining substrates are effective. Coconut fiber substrate is ideal for well-ventilated cages (but not as ideal for cleaning as paper towels). Temperature and ventilation will affect how long it takes for the substrate to dry. In the interest of convenience, about 2-3 days should be the goal for how long before you need to mist again (as well as feed). Now, you don't want so much water vapor in there that it is collecting and remaining on the sides. Too much humidity/not enough ventilation can greatly promote the growth of mold on any remaining food particles, mantid-waste, and other organics.

Sexing your mantises can be difficult when they are young. As they get older it gets easier to distinguish males from females because the distance between the abdominal segments increases. When viewed from the underside (not topside), males have 8 abdominal segments and females have 6. Start counting from the segment just after where the back legs attach to the thorax and finish at the posterior tip of the abdomen.

In temperate regions, mantises hatch in the spring and die as winter approaches. Very occasionally, somebody reports a wild caught mantis living into the new year, but this is rare. Most probably die in December at the latest. In captivity, both temperate and tropical species live about a year from hatching to death. Males often mature sooner than females and have shorter adult life spans.

Live Foods AKA Live Feeder Insects

I recommend feeding the mantids as much of a variety of foods as is possible. Flying insects are always preferred, although I don't advocate feeding mantids other environmentally beneficial insects, like bees (which also sting and bite in some cases). Many people do feed bees to mantises, but unless you know a bit about bees, it's advisable to stay clear of them.

Crickets are ok, but I'd be careful with them. Pet store crickets should be transferred to a healthy diet for at least 48 hours, before feeding to your mantids. It's not terribly important, but a mantis is what it eats! A bit of oatmeal, romaine lettuce, and a chunk of potato for moisture are suitable foods for your feeder crickets. Ants, especially in numbers, can bite and damage mantises, so steer clear! After many years in being an informational resource for the mantis hobby, I do feel it necessary to state what may or may not be obvious....mantises require LIVE foods!

They will not want to eat something unless it is moving. Additionally, the prey item (also called a "feeder" or "feeder insect") must be the appropriate size. If you look at the forelegs of your mantis (the front, grasping "arms"), their size should help you gauge the appropriate prey-size. The mantis must be able to hold the prey in its arms. There is some room for error in this method, as mantises will often take down prey smaller and/or larger than their "ideal" prey, but you will learn through experience.

Ideally, the mantid's abdomen will usually look quite plump, but not to the point of bursting. Never feed the mantid more than 2 proportionately sized crickets at a time. I'd recommend one cricket every other day, or so.

Menu for Mantises based on size: (note: there are 2 kinds of fruit flies typically offered. Drosophila melanogaster are the small ones. D. hydei are about 3 times as large and better used for 2nd or 3rd instar mantises. I use flightless fruit flies, exclusively.

However, if you only have a few mantises, you can build a fruit fly trap by placing a bit of fruit in a container with a few small holes in it or a lid ajar. When you see a few flies in it, simply pop the container in the freezer for about 2 minutes and the flies will cool down to the point of not being able to move. Drop them in with your mantis and they'll come back to life as they warm up a few minutes later. If yours don't come back to life after about 5-10 minutes, this means you left them in the freezer too long.)

1st instar: fruit flies or springtails (only the smallest species need springtails. I do not sell any mantises that require springtails.)

2nd instar: fruit flies

3rd instar: fruit flies and house flies or small crickets or small roaches

4th instar: house flies and small crickets or small roaches

5th instar: same feeder insects as 4th instar, but slightly larger

6th instar: same but larger

7th instar: same

8th instar: adult crickets, blue bottle flies and roaches (variety is good)

Note: Adult males of some species are considerably smaller than adult females, so be sure to feed them more according to their size than by the outline above.

Schedule of Feeding:

1st & 2nd instar- daily or every other day, about 1-3 flies depending on abdomen thickness

3rd-5th instar- every 1-3 days

6th instar to maturity- every 1-3 days (larger food, of course)

gravid (pregnant) females - they should eat every day and appear quite plump.

Molting

Except with gravid females, you should avoid feeding a plump-looking mantis, as your mantid is possibly near its time of molting, and could be damaged during this sensitive time by uneaten feeder insects. A few days prior to molting (shedding the skin), the mantis will typically stop eating and may appear skinnier and "look" hungry.

This is not the case. This helps to reduce its size just a bit before it sheds its old skin. And mostly, the new skin has already begun to grow beneath the old skin. You might notice that your mantis "bats" at prey to scare it away. It is imperative that you remove all feeder insects if you suspect your mantis is about to molt/shed. Uneaten feeders, especially crickets, will either eat the soft-skinned mantis or knock it down from its molting-perch (the process of molting is a very vulnerable time).

It is recommended that you don't even touch the cage for fear that the mantis might not have set its foot-holds well enough. A mantis that falls while molting will die within 48 hours about 75% of the time. The rest of the time it will live for a few days or weeks, disfigured, half in the molt and half out. I'd opt to place the dying mantis in the freezer, to quickly end its suffering, but that's your moral call and I've ceased to discuss such things with everyone. People with opinions tend to be pretty sure of them and I can't really relate anymore to a single mantis pet with a name, after raising many thousands.

A few signs of the pending molt include the following: cloudiness of skin coloration, thickening of the wing "buds" (these get larger with every molt, eventually becoming full wings for most species in the pet hobby), behavioral differences like lack of energy or interest in food.

Breeding (see video at top of page)

Breeding mantids is probably the most difficult part of raising them. It is a well-known fact that the female will often make a meal of the male. This is an occasional occurrence in nature and a frequent one in captivity. It is true that the male can complete copulation without the presence of his head which is sometimes bitten off and eat during the act! However, I’m always very careful to protect my male if the female does not appear receptive to him.

After the female has been mature for a few weeks, introduce HER to the MALE’S cage. He will already have his perch staked out, and she may not even see him. He’ll be waiting and ready though, sensitive to any movement in his habitat. Ideally, you will have enough room to get your hands in there to intervene, should the situation “get ugly”.

Prior to introducing them feed the mantids (especially the female) up very thoroughly. Her abdomen should be quite plump before you introduce her to the male, probably with a week's worth of daily feedings. Often, I will put her in his cage while she is still eating! This is an excellent way to distract her, and to keep her from grabbing him.

Okay, so she’s in with him now. I usually arm myself with a nice pair of forceps and a dull toothpick or stick. In the event of an attack by her, it is imperative that you act very quickly! If she has the chance to sink her mandibles into him, it will be too late. Open wounds usually mean death for a mantid. However, if she is only just gripping him, you can carefully (3 hands work much better than 2) pry them apart. Wait a few days before introducing them again. I might even take the female into another part of the house, or outside, in the hopes that there will be no exchange of pheromones (and possibly over-saturation...so the theory or myth? goes).

Mating seems to last anywhere from ½ hr. to 6 hrs., although I’ve seen males remain on females’ backs for days (it's the only somewhat safe place in the cage). I always choose to separate the male when the act is done, especially if I'm not sure whether they mated while I was sleeping and I (we) might need his services again.

Otherwise, he will inevitably end up as a meal. One mating is enough to fertilize all her future egg cases, and females will often lay upwards of 5 if they are well cared for. It is good to re-mate her if that is an option, but it rarely is as male mantises often die within 2 months of maturing, while females live for 3 to 6. Since males molt fewer times, I recommend keeping your males in a cooler place and offering them less food if you are going to try to time their maturing with the females. Warmer temperatures and frequent feedings result in faster growth.

If your mantises seem disinterested in each other and if the female doesn't appear annoyed or aggressive towards the male, you might eventually choose to leave them together for a few days (or more). While it is comforting to visually confirm that your mantises have mated, we don't always get that opportunity.

Now, if a female does not have access to a male, she will often produce a non-viable ootheca (an unfertilized egg case- i.e. a "dud"). A few species of mantids are parthenogenetic, like Brunneria borealis of the Southern USA. This means that females can actually produce viable oothecae, although the offspring will essentially be clones of the mother and no males will be present. Note: B. borealis is the only mantis that shows up in captivity that is consistently capable of breeding via parthenogenesis. It ranges from Texas to Florida and is thin, stick-like, and green and about four inches long.

If a female has already begun to produce an ootheca within her, but has not yet begun to lay it, a late arriving male will still be able to fertilize her eggs. After mating, it may take from a day to several weeks or more before she lays the ootheca, depending on whether she was preparing one within her already and whether she has eaten enough to provide the energy needed to form the egg case.

Troubleshooting

Various, familiar problems sometimes occur with our pet mantises. Most of these are preventable, but not always.

Molting problems are the leading cause of preventable death for most pet mantises. Please read the topics above for information on prevention of issues during that process where the mantises shed their skin/exoskeleton.

One issue that is common is the sudden appearance of a black liquid on the walls of your pet's habitat. This is fairly rare, but almost always results in death. Theories on the source of why a mantis will sometimes get sick include bacterial infection. This may be prevented with regular changes of substrate and removal of leftover parts of feeder insects. I've also noticed that mantises will sometimes excrete surplus liquids via a spraying action. This excretion will turn powdery white in a dry cage, or brownish and sticky in a humid one.

If your pet mantises experience any kind of problems, please feel free to contact me and I will get back to you promptly.