April 23, 2021

Bounce the Spider

I’ve been really forcing myself to overcome some of my worst fears, both rational and not, so, when I came across an image of a pet jumping spider holding a beautiful, small jewel, I simply couldn’t resist.

She arrived well-packaged and that was the scariest unwrapping of any package I’d ever done; she was full of energy, came with an information sheet, and her own tiny roaches. But I soon learned her favorite cuisine was a juicy meal worm :)

Bounce didn’t do much in the first few days but spin a web in her new habitat. In the next few weeks though, I grew very concerned as she wasn’t interested in eating or moving away from a web she’d been working on non-stop for days. It was so thick I couldn’t see through it. And then it dawned on me that she had made a nest. A quick Google search confirmed one of my greatest fears: she was incubating possibly millions of baby spiders in my home.

More weeks passed and Bounce didn’t move from her nest too much, not even to eat but I was always sure she had a fresh meal worm just in case. A few days ago, I came home and took a peak inside her habitat, making sure she was okay. I tapped a little on the box and didn’t see much movement at first, until I noticed tiny little spiders moving about inside their nest.

I’d watched a couple of YouTube videos on the process of raising baby jumping spiders and it seems quite complicated and straight-forward at the same time. I knew it was time to separate mom from her babies.

I purchased bounce her own habitat and added new dried foliage for her to hide in. Then I tediously removed much of the webbing from the babies to ensure they were okay. Honestly, there were a lot LESS than I thought there would be, possibly 50 or so tiny Bounces, but they have chosen to remain in their nest for now.

I will continue to research how to raise tiny baby jumping spiders but for now, they all seem to be doing okay with regular watering and dried meal worms. Bounce also looked a little relieved when she released she no longer had to remain glued to her nest 🥰

PS: we named her Bounce because Sawyer can’t say, “spider,” so he calls them all “bounce!” Isn’t that just adorable?!