Spiders

[Weezie]

I found a very small jumping spider in my home and considered feeding it to my mantis. On second thought, I changed my mind thinking it may be dangerous. Is it okay to feed spiders to my mantis, or is there a chance the spider might bite and poison her? The spider was smaller than a fly, but I would rather be safe than sorry. Should I avoid spiders entirely, or are some safe? I'm new to all of this so I would like to learn!

 

[Serle]

I feed all spiders , one of my L5 Tenoderas cannot get to them quickly enough .... S

 

[crabbypatty]

I personally wouldn't, you never know. Although one time a was handling my Chinese and a daddy long legs came from nowhere and my mantis got it before I could react. It was fine but I wouldn't catch anything like that to feed my mantis, it's best to stick to regular non biting feeders, haha. I read that a member here fed a spider to his mantis and the spider killed it, better safe than sorry. 

 

[Mystymantis]

I wouldn't ever feed spiders to my mantises. All spiders have venom of some sort so I wouldn't risk it. Even though most spiders can't hurt us if they bite, to a mantis a spider bite could be fatal.

 

[GingerC]

Spiders bite insects to kill and eat them, so it's probably not the safest food item. ^-^ That said, jumping spiders make lovely pets, so maybe keep it anyway?

 

[Weezie]

Thanks for the advice. And it's true, jumping spiders are cute, maybe I'll keep the next one!

 

[Zeppy44]

If one of my mantis is out and chases one down, I will watch with rapt attention (unless Black Widow).  Put into habitat for food, probably no.  Way too many flies and moths here to need to do that.

FYI, it has been reported that jumping spiders (tiny,tiny) can detect sounds up to 3 feet away. Not bad for something that size with no ears, LOL!

 

[lovebugfarm]

I met a guy recently who breeds black widows just for feeders because they are like plump little fruit flies he said. I was pretty interesting. He of course was feeding them to other spiders not mantis though

 

[Kermit]

I feed garden spiders to my mantis all the time... Always have.

Never feed a black widow to a mantis, it will 100% kill them!  

People get the crazy notion that they will create the "Ultimate Match" between Black Widow and Mantis, but the mantis eats the BW and then immediately dies... Because it's poison... Duh! There are other posionous spiders but not all are poisonous and mantis naturally predicate on spiders in the wild!