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Spider and her babies

jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
in Wildlife gardening
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! 
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  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
    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
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2022
    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.  
     :) 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
    OK, I think I need to put the children first then. 😂
  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23

    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. 

  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
    I found the above, and think they are still in the clustering together stage. I may monitor them, hopefully soon they'll go! 
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    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.  
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
  • Fran IOMFran IOM Posts: 2,872
    @didyw.   How could you hoover them up!  :D. 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.  :)
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    They are cellar spiders @Fran IOM, spiders of very little brain.  Certainly not the sort you could have a conversation with.
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
    didyw said:
    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.  
    Yes! We've been watching them and the way they move. We looked up the life cycle etc, and my children don't want them to get hurt, either, so we're leaving them for this morning, and then as you say, I may be able to encourage them onto some newspaper or something and move them off. The mother looks like she is still sitting on the sac, so I think they've only just hatched and will still be feeding from the sac contents, perhaps? I'm not really sure! 
  • jemimarosejemimarose Posts: 23
    Fran IOM said:
    @didyw.   How could you hoover them up!  :D. 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.  :)
    I have been known to talk to spiders!  There was one beautiful orb spider last year and I used to talk to her a lot. The children and I named her Charlotte. Once I was trying to catapult a stunned fly into her web when the tea-towel I was using to fling it flung into her web and knocked her out. I was mortified! I was also already in a dilemma about the fly I had stunned and was feeding her because I felt bad about the fly! I discovered that she wasn't supposed to be a house spider and relocated her outside in a sheltered part of our garden. What a relief for my conscience! 
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