It is the time of year that the new crop of tiny spiders makes its way
indoors.

We have quite a few in the bathroom, and some seem to be bigger every day
but without any sign of dried up corpses either in the webs or underneath.

Firstly, what does a spider the size of a pinhead eat? It must be
something very small indeed.

Secondly, what do they eat as they get bigger? Before they graduate to
visible flying insects that is.

I have a suspicion that the most obvious available food (that is, each
other) may be the main source but where do they hide the remains?


Cheers



Dave R


--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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On 23/09/2019 14:45, David wrote:
It is the time of year that the new crop of tiny spiders makes its way
indoors.

We have quite a few in the bathroom, and some seem to be bigger every day
but without any sign of dried up corpses either in the webs or underneath.

Firstly, what does a spider the size of a pinhead eat? It must be
something very small indeed.

Secondly, what do they eat as they get bigger? Before they graduate to
visible flying insects that is.

I have a suspicion that the most obvious available food (that is, each
other) may be the main source but where do they hide the remains?


Cheers



Dave R


I always understood that spiders do no grow in size.

In article ,
David wrote:
It is the time of year that the new crop of tiny spiders makes its way
indoors.

We have quite a few in the bathroom, and some seem to be bigger every day
but without any sign of dried up corpses either in the webs or underneath.

Firstly, what does a spider the size of a pinhead eat? It must be
something very small indeed.

Secondly, what do they eat as they get bigger? Before they graduate to
visible flying insects that is.

I have a suspicion that the most obvious available food (that is, each
other) may be the main source but where do they hide the remains?

Well, they will eat other spiders, but their main food is tiny insects,
and the remains are hard to distinguish from dust. There are a lot of
insects that are not visible as such to the naked eye.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 23/09/2019 16:03, Broadback wrote:
I always understood that spiders do no grow in size.

You understood wrong.

They grow, and like all creatures with external skeletons have to shed
them every so often. I occasionally find the shed "skin" of a spider.

Back to the OP: We have phalangioides spiders, sometimes known as daddy
longlegs. One of the things they eat is the black hairy tegenaria spiders

Andy
--
Not to be confused with a cranefly, sometimes known as daddy longlegs...

On 23/09/2019 16:23, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
David wrote:
It is the time of year that the new crop of tiny spiders makes its way
indoors.

We have quite a few in the bathroom, and some seem to be bigger every day
but without any sign of dried up corpses either in the webs or underneath.

Firstly, what does a spider the size of a pinhead eat? It must be
something very small indeed.

Secondly, what do they eat as they get bigger? Before they graduate to
visible flying insects that is.

I have a suspicion that the most obvious available food (that is, each
other) may be the main source but where do they hide the remains?

Well, they will eat other spiders, but their main food is tiny insects,
and the remains are hard to distinguish from dust. There are a lot of
insects that are not visible as such to the naked eye.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks Vic I stand, or in this case sit, corrected.

On 23/09/2019 21:29, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 23/09/2019 16:03, Broadback wrote:
I always understood that spiders do no grow in size.

You understood wrong.

They grow, and like all creatures with external skeletons have to shed
them every so often. I occasionally find the shed "skin" of a spider.

Back to the OP: We have phalangioides spiders, sometimes known as daddy
longlegs. One of the things they eat is the black hairy tegenaria
spiders

Andy


I have daddy longleg spiders in my porch, they are fairly local to some
areas. I must ask them inside if they eat the big hairy house spiders!

On 13/10/2019 17:32, Chris Hogg wrote:
I think daddy-longlegs is a name given to more than one type of
spider. What I call a daddy-longlegs is also called a harvestman, is
one of the Opiliones and they are not true spiders, apparently,
whereas I think VC was talking about Pholcus phalangioides.
Seehttp://tinyurl.com/y22usxfo andhttp://tinyurl.com/y54948w7

Our cats used to eat the big hairy spiders that come into the house in
Autumn.

Indeed so.

When I was a kid a daddy long legs was a cranefly

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/flies/cranefly/
AKA
http://tinyurl.com/y2jxpr5n

One of the Tipulidae apparently... And there larvae of course are
leatherjackets which can be a real garden pest.

Andy

Vir Campestris wrote:

When I was a kid a daddy long legs was a cranefly

Same here, bloody annoying things trying to swoop into you face (I guess
they target CO2?) not had any so far this year though ...

In message , Andy Burns
writes
Vir Campestris wrote:

When I was a kid a daddy long legs was a cranefly

Same here, bloody annoying things trying to swoop into you face (I
guess they target CO2?) not had any so far this year though ...

A daddy longlegs is STILL a cranefly. However, the term is not
inappropriate for the long-legged spider - provided you add 'spider'.

I don't know where the spiders came from. I'd never seen them until
around ten years ago - and now the house has loads of them. And it's
pointless trying to remove their webs (usually flimsy skeins of dirty
fluff). A few days later, and they're back. You might as well leave the
original webs in place.
--
Ian

On 14/10/2019 22:19, Ian Jackson wrote:
And it's pointless trying to remove their webs (usually flimsy skeins of
dirty fluff). A few days later, and they're back. You might as well
leave the original webs in place.

They'll make new clean webs. Clean them up often enough and the spiders
will starve to death, which may be what you want!

Andy

On 14/10/2019 02:05, Andy Burns wrote:
Vir Campestris wrote:

When I was a kid a daddy long legs was a cranefly

Same here, bloody annoying things trying to swoop into you face (I guess
they target CO2?) not had any so far this year though ...

Here in my local area, we have a "daddy long legs spider" Their bodies
are almost transluscent and they dangle from the ceiling.