grass spider egg sac

Hey all,
A couple of weeks ago I thought I had a runaway sling for a moment, but after checking on here it was ID'd as a grass spider. I figured what the hell, and fed it a few crickets in one of my sling containers. It got fat fast. Then yesterday it made an eggsac.

I have no intention of keeping it or the eggsac but don't want to destroy the eggsac either. If I take the lid off the container and leave it outside, do people think the female will abandon the egg and leave the container, or stick by it? I'm just curious. I'll probably just put the container outside so when it hatches they will be outside - but I wonder if she'd exit and leave behind the eggsac when left with the option to flee.

Any wagers?

I would leave it (as is) till the eggs hatch, then put it in a safe place for them outside, they will climb out and make a home.

MarkmD said:

I would leave it (as is) till the eggs hatch, then put it in a safe place for them outside, they will climb out and make a home.

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I'm sure the slings would easily come out of the very small holes in the container for ventilation and then end up all over my house
I will just put the container outside in the shade somewhere.

The fat little bugger created a second egg sac and I swear she's so fat she looks like she may drop a third.

I haven't moved her outside, I got attached to her. I think it's several weeks before the egg may hatch - but if someone can verify this I would appreciate it. I'm still worried the egg(s) may hatch and the slings would easily fit through the ventilation holes and populate my office.

Are you sure it's a grass spider, and not a hololena or rualena species? Many people mistake those for agelenopsis.

agelenopsis can get alarmingly big. While they dont have the ridiculous legspan that eratigena have, they can reach nearly 30mm in some of my scrub haunts.

The female guards the egg sacs for a few days then leaves, the egg sacs can over-winter but if its warm out then they will most certainly hatch within 4-5 weeks. I had a female A.pennsylvanica who laid 4 sacs late September and I got babies on Halloween. Make sure the female is separated from the sacs before they hatch because she will eat the babies; while the babies seem pretty tolerant of each other for a time. If you leave the eggs in a warm place where ants or wasps won't get at them they will hatch then disperse themselves.

awiec said:

The female guards the egg sacs for a few days then leaves, the egg sacs can over-winter but if its warm out then they will most certainly hatch within 4-5 weeks. I had a female A.pennsylvanica who laid 4 sacs late September and I got babies on Halloween. Make sure the female is separated from the sacs before they hatch because she will eat the babies; while the babies seem pretty tolerant of each other for a time. If you leave the eggs in a warm place where ants or wasps won't get at them they will hatch then disperse themselves.

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That's odd.. My A. aperta never practiced cannibalism on their own young. Actually, i've noticed the females will stop feeding to allow the young to eat in many cases- killing but dropping it near the sac before they began to disperse.

Smokehound714 said:

That's odd.. My A. aperta never practiced cannibalism on their own young. Actually, i've noticed the females will stop feeding to allow the young to eat in many cases- killing but dropping it near the sac before they began to disperse.

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Yeah I guess mine wasn't a good mother, I would even feed her and she would still eat em but I also had pennsylvanica, not aperta so there might be a species difference in parental care.