Help Me Please , I`m Worried about my spider

[Soberface]

Can anybody help me please ?
I`ve got a male B Smithi about 3 year`s old now , its in good health as far as i can tell but i think its damaged a spinaret . It now trails a thick (2- 3 mm) piece of silk from one spinaret which is picking up detritus off the ground . I`ve thought about cutting it off , but would would rather not interfere , but i`m more worried about when it tries to moult , will the silk hinder the moulting or will it fall off with the old exoskeleton ?
Any help or views are greatly appreciated .
Thank you.

[Richard Gallon]

I wouldn't cut it off since there's a chance of complications (i.e. it could bleed to death, and may not respond to being sealed).

How much silk is been trailed? (any piccies). Prehaps just keep cutting the silk off every few days. There's a good chance the problem will rectify itself when the spider moults.

Richard

[Ray Hale]

Hi try not to worry. I agree with Richard it will probably lose it when it next moults. A damaged spinneret should not cause the spider any problems and if there is no discharge I think it will be ok.



Ray Hale

[Soberface]

Thanks for your help i appreciate it . Sorry about the pic being blurry , its the best i could get it , i`ll try and get a better pic tomorrow .

[Richard Gallon]

If I'm interpreting your picture correctly, then the silk trail is bigger than the spider

In which case definitely keep triming it back. I think it'll probably keep the spinneret, possibly loseing or fixing it with its next moult. If it doesn't rectify itself after the moult, then you can consider the more risky proceedure of removing the spinneret (the spinneret will grow back with future moults anyway).

Richard

[Soberface]

Sorry about the pic . This one has a better sense of scale to it . But from what i`ve heard , i`m a lot more optimistic now .
Thanks again for your help .