# tegenaria gigantea care...?



## badboiboom (Oct 22, 2007)

hey all...

i have had a tegenaria gigantea for about a week now in a kritter keeper tank(you know the translucent blue ones?)


does anyone else keep these?
this one has just chowed down on 2 crickets(large ones as well: victory

so yeah..has anyone got any advise on keeping these amazing arachnids?

cheers once again


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## badboiboom (Oct 22, 2007)

anyone?........



BUMP


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

i've got one living in an ASDA storage jar with air holes drilled in the lid. She's got about an inch of soil, then a couple of chunky bits of wood and some dead leaves to web onto. She's been in there a few months and has produced 5 egg sacs so far. Her web is amazing, she is always adding to it. I spray her web once a week or so in case she wants a drink, and drop her a meal worm or cricket in now and again.

They're tough as old boots really, being native they can survive a range of conditions.

here's one of her with egg sac #1


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## utterbeastage (Apr 4, 2009)

garlicpickle said:


> i've got one living in an ASDA storage jar with air holes drilled in the lid. She's got about an inch of soil, then a couple of chunky bits of wood and some dead leaves to web onto. She's been in there a few months and has produced 5 egg sacs so far. Her web is amazing, she is always adding to it. I spray her web once a week or so in case she wants a drink, and drop her a meal worm or cricket in now and again.
> 
> They're tough as old boots really, being native they can survive a range of conditions.
> 
> here's one of her with egg sac #1


Im thinking of taking one of these in for a while , too 
theres millions under slabs in my garden now that the weathers got hotter/


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

her web is much more extensive now - I'll do another pic, hang on


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)




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## utterbeastage (Apr 4, 2009)

garlicpickle said:


>


christ GP it's like a snowglobe , looks like she's well fed anyway
how can you determine sex with this species?


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

I think she's brewing another sac from the size of her - that'll be the 6th :devil: I just wish she'd bloody moult! I keep taking them off her and putting them in the shed in a cricket tub, none hatched yet though.

Mature males are leggier and have smaller abdomens, but I don't know enough about them to know how you tell a female from a younger male.


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## utterbeastage (Apr 4, 2009)

garlicpickle said:


> I think she's brewing another sac from the size of her - that'll be the 6th :devil: I just wish she'd bloody moult! I keep taking them off her and putting them in the shed in a cricket tub, none hatched yet though.
> 
> Mature males are leggier and have smaller abdomens, but I don't know enough about them to know how you tell a female from a younger male.


I might go out and grab a few now, can they be kept communal?
I'm guessing not but ive got multiple containers , theres three of them under a slab in the back garden :2thumb:


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

I think they're solitary, wouldn't risk housing them together unless you had a massive tank where they could each make separate webs.

Just noticed I have a steatoda nobilis living in the top corner of my kitchen window - inside that is. The cheeky thing has webbed onto my wind chimes!


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## utterbeastage (Apr 4, 2009)

garlicpickle said:


> I think they're solitary, wouldn't risk housing them together unless you had a massive tank where they could each make separate webs.
> 
> Just noticed I have a steatoda nobilis living in the top corner of my kitchen window - inside that is. The cheeky thing has webbed onto my wind chimes!


the three are under a slab 1ft x 2ft so they must just keep themselves to themselves.
as for yor kitchen spider and the windchimes , he's either a hippy or totally deaf


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

yeah but they don't dingle now he's webbed them up - maybe he didn't like the noise!


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## Willenium (Apr 17, 2008)

garlicpickle said:


> Mature males are leggier and have smaller abdomens, but I don't know enough about them to know how you tell a female from a younger male.


I've noticed the immature males with bulbous palps prior to moulting into fully mature males. Might be worth bearing in mind if you're out looking for them.


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## badboiboom (Oct 22, 2007)

okay... 

after lots of google searching.. 
i think mine is a tegenaria domestica..looks more like mine 

so yeah..im rubbish on latin names 
(im more of a scorpion/caudata man myself )

anyways.. so yeah..aren't T.domestica just the smaller version of T.gigantea?


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

T.gigantea is no longer the accepted name for the species, which appears to now be called _Tegenaria duellica. _

It's quite difficult to identify T.duellica from T.savea and google photographs will probably just lead to further confusion. If you are desperate for an ID, try this link from the BAS:

http://www.britishspiders.org.uk/srs/id/tegenaria.pdf

They refer to T.duellica by the synonym T.gigantea, but the information is still valid.

[edit] Sorry, I misread your post and thought you had suggested it was T.gigantea. Still, you might want to consider that it's one of the two species in the ID sheet if you live in those areas.


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## badboiboom (Oct 22, 2007)

this great little spider has just moulted 
he/she's feeding on a moth or large cricket once a week.. greedy little devil


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