Help! Jumping spider slings won't eat

[Meer]

I've got some tiny little P. audax slings and I can't get them to eat. I got fruit flies for them but they are too big. The slings just ignore them or run away if they get close. I tried giving them a small pre-killed cricket but they ignored that too. I caught a little bug a bit smaller than the fruit flies and put that in there, they won't eat that either. I thought they might start praying on each other if they had nothing else to eat, but they're not. I'm afraid they will all starve to death.

What could I feed these tiny slings that are to small for fruit flies?

[RodG]

Have they already had their first molt? If not , I would not worry too much yet. Once thye have had their first molt wait a day or two and try the fuit flies again. D. melanogaster is what you should be using as D. hydei are way too big. Hope this helps.

[Meer]

Yes, they've molted at least once, they are moving around and are very lively. I guess I'll have to order D. melanogaster because D. hydei is all the pet store has. :mad:

Are you sure the D. melanogaster will be small enough? They are only about 1/16 inch big.

[RodG]

Juimping spiders typically will hunt critters slightly bigger than themselves and in some Phidippus species you would be amazed at the size of the prey items they will tackle. But the fruit flies you used were definitely too big for your P. auidax slings. Worse case scenario is to leave them all together and yes there will be some cannabilism but the survivors will be big enough to seperate out and switch to the appropriate sized crickets. Best of luck!!!

[dtknow]

Go outside and do some field sweeping with a fine mesh net. The resulting tiny gnats, leafhoppers etc. will work great.

[Meer]

Now if only I had a fine mesh net. But I ordered some melanogaster flies, just not sure how long it will take to get them. I don't mind if my slings cannabilize a bit in the mean time, just as long as some of them survive. However I don't think any of them have eaten each other yet. If I can figure out how to catch some tiny bugs I will.

[ErgoProxy]

The "wingless" variety of the fruit flies mentioned would be even better (though raising them natural mutation rates will cause winged individuals to eventually show up in the colony).

If you can sweep up some Collembola from moist grass (springtails, some consider them primitive insects, while others do not) those may work too as they are often small.

Many spiders that you don't think would feed on a crushed larger insect may actually do this when hunger takes over, but it's often times a bit tougher in jumping spiders since the prey drive is based off visual cues (a very well sighted groups of spiders and movement is key in most cases).

IF they are drinking water droplets you may try this novel approach....make a cricket smoothie, filter out all the large particles, fill a syringe with this "soup" and make small droplets for them to feed on. It may work. Though you would also have to clean out the droplets to avoid bacterial/fungal build-up...

[jynxxxedangel]

I have one thing to say--

Aphids!

Go check your mum's rosebushes, there's bounty there, ARRRGH! :)