House Spider attacks G. Rosea

[Peter Lacey]

This morning I decided to feed a house spider to my 4 instar G. Rosea. She's eagerly taken spiders before but this was a little larger than the previous ones but only a third the size of the T. I watched over to make sure the battle went well but was shocked to see the house spider pounce on the back of the Rosea and after a little rolling around clearly gain the upper hand. eeeeek!
Time for intervention. Thankfully I always have a long thin artists paintbrush to hand and attempted to seperate them. It wasn't easy but it worked and I followed with harrassing the spider out of the enclosure and into a pot. My Rosea scurried off to her burrow.
I'm feeling quite guilty now especially as this is my youngest daughter's T (she loves the pink legs) but I'm glad I was on hand to rescue her. I just pray she survives the attack.
A lesson learned for sure, house spiders are obviously rather aggressive little beasts and I won't be offering them in future although I'm very tempted to see how it does against my CWD!

[James Box]

that's the risk of feeding live prey. even a cricket can gain the upper hand in some cases!
i'd be wary of feeding a predator, but i guess it's not too bad, if much smaller.
the main worry would be the same for all wildcaught prey items: chemicals and local disease.

now you have a tough little true spider,, though, you should keep it as a pet!

[Phil Rea]

You are chancing your arm feeding another spider to a smallish T. Many true spiders will quite happily mop up escaped T slings and make a meal out of them.

House spiders can certainly be extremely defensive. I've had one literally go for me when trying to move it out of the way.

[Peter Lacey]

Perhaps it was a little naive of me to think the T would cause more of a threat.

It will be a sad loss if we lose her, we've all become attracted to her as she's been a joy to watch, very active with plenty of peculiar moments, the best of which was her dance to rave music!

[Mark Pennell]

Peter
I hope this was a lesson well learned. As Phil points out true spiders are extremely quick and well armed hunters. If the house spider has bitten your spiderling then I suspect it will be dead very soon.

I hope that others reading this will take heed of this and not try the same thing.

The BTS certainly does not advocate this kind of feeding. I had contemplated removing this thread, but will leave it here as a warning to others not to feed their tarantulas house or any other kind of spider.

Regards
Mark

[Tom Newman]

Peter
I hope this was a lesson well learned. As Phil points out true spiders are extremely quick and well armed hunters. If the house spider has bitten your spiderling then I suspect it will be dead very soon.

I hope that other reading this will take heed of this and not try the same thing.

The BTS certainly does not advocate this kind of feeding.

Yep house spiders are spider killers and the venom has a very stong affect on other spiders as its designed to take down prey even bigger than its body ( I know this because i have done some breif reserch into the house spider and in the spider world i'd compare them to a tiger ) lets just hope the sling survived in (if not 3 months time i'll do u a very cheap northern gold sling )

[Peter Lacey]

Peter
I hope this was a lesson well learned. As Phil points out true spiders are extremely quick and well armed hunters. If the house spider has bitten your spiderling then I suspect it will be dead very soon.

I hope that others reading this will take heed of this and not try the same thing.

The BTS certainly does not advocate this kind of feeding. I had contemplated removing this thread, but will leave it here as a warning to others not to feed their tarantulas house or any other kind of spider.

Regards
Mark

Mark, I'm rather glad you didn't take it down despite your justified reservations. I too hope it serves as a lesson as the result baffled me. If I'd have thought there was a danger I would never have put the spider in with my G. Rosea, it certainly wasn't put in for the "gladiator" effect. School boy antics were left behind me in 1979 and I take my pet care as seriously as I can.
I've seen a number of posts where people have used other spiders as food and I've suggested the same, certainly in other forums, I think I may have done so in this forum too. Never has anyone suggested there was a danger or indeed that this was frowned upon. I will endeavour to make sure I correct that.
I'm reading as much as I can about T's, even the ones I have no intention of keeping. Trying to understand the science and using forums to provide my experiences and learn from others.
I fully expect she was bitten as the house spider was in a prime position to do so and the Rosea didn't look too lively once I seperated them. However, that was 8am this morning and as I'm writing this I've received a text to say she started to move. I really hope that's good news and really hope she improves.

On a side note it makes me wonder how dangerous or aggressive a house spider would be if it were the size of a tarantula and appropriate ratios were used.

[Colin D Wilson]

Thanks for posting this reply Peter, and yes i had seen other posts on other forums that had said it was general practice. These threads got very heated in the following posts.

I was concerned that the post may have some inflamed replies, and therefore notified Mark (although he was already aware) regarding whether to halt the thread immediately. I added that it served a purpose of what not to feed your spider on and the consequences hereafter, Mark has already stated this above, and maybe it should stay, then left it with Mark for the final decision.

I hope the thread continues to have replies that remain as constructive as the ones already posted.

Colin

[mary walters]

I have lost a few slings in my spider room, and found little husks of them in tegenaria webs that abound in there, the latest one is my annitha sling, the last I wanted to lose, but I fear she has fallen prey to them.

[Peter Lacey]

Thanks for posting this reply Peter, and yes i had seen other posts on other forums that had said it was general practice. These threads got very heated in the following posts.

Fully understand that having had over 5 years of running a forum.

I also hope the thread will not be closed as the story isn't over yet. Perhaps she'll get through it and I'll be returning with good news and any advice for others in this situation.

[Mark Pennell]

Fully understand that having had over 5 years of running a forum.

I also hope the thread will not be closed as the story isn't over yet. Perhaps she'll get through it and I'll be returning with good news and any advice for others in this situation.

Peter
As long as the topic remains civil and the debate is good it will, I only thought of removing it to stop an over heated debate. It is clear to me that your intentions were not that of some expecting a gladiator event.

On a side note it makes me wonder how dangerous or aggressive a house spider would be if it were the size of a tarantula and appropriate ratios were used.

Tegenaria the size of tarantula's - having observed large hunting spiders such as Heteropoda in the wild I can assure you they would be supremely efficient killing machines.

Once saw a 3 legged heteropoda sp still actively hunting and killing a prey item.

Cheers
Mark

[Louise~Nichols]

Fully understand that having had over 5 years of running a forum.

I also hope the thread will not be closed as the story isn't over yet. Perhaps she'll get through it and I'll be returning with good news and any advice for others in this situation.

Peter...all I can say is that it is human nature to make mistakes...but it takes a big person to admit to them. My respects to you for sharing this experience and hopefully helping others to understand the limitations of which prey items are *off the menu*. My fingers are crossed for the little Rosea to recover fully.

As for how potent a *Tegenaria* can be...I had to have my index finger lanced after a house spider bite, my doctor was very amused as they know I keep tarantulas!

[Colin D Wilson]

Once saw a 3 legged heteropoda sp still actively hunting and killing a prey item.

That....i would have liked to have witnessed......no video camera handy there by any chance to share Mark?

[Peter Lacey]

Well I think I can say its not a house spider or at least it looks nothing like any of these: http://www.nicksspiders.com/nicksspi...iagigantia.htm

Some simple identifiers:
Brown, similar to an old acorn, no stripes. Dark chelicera. Elongated opisthosoma (like a fat grain of rice) and the two dark brown spinarets seem partially joined together by a lighter brown.
Not too dissimilar to this, although without the stripes:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/spiderbites/bark-sac-spider-clubiona-corticalis.html

I may take a better search through here tomorrow:

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/gallery/browseimages.php?c=30

[Peter Lacey]

I really should be in bed, but...
I think I've found it:
Stone Spider - Drassodes Lapidosus

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/spiderbites/stone-spider-drassodes-lapidosus.html