Spiders are beneficial to the natural ecosystem allowing and help in keeping your home insect-free. But we all agree that our home is not a place for them to reside. That said, the insects that reside in our home often attract spiders as they love to consume insects.
Spiders are carnivores and natural predators. They feed on various insects and some smaller species of spiders. This blog explores the spider’s diet to understand their eating habits. So that if your house has the food that attracts them, you can eliminate it to keep your home spider-free.
Let’s go!
A spider’s Menu
Spiders feed on a variety of foods. It is also estimated that the total spider population, globally, eats more than what the entire human population consumes in terms of meat and fish. Yes! Shocking, but true. Spiders consume around 880 million tons of insects in one year, while humans consume up to 450 million tons of fish and meat a year.
While some spiders feed on insects, some eat small animals, including other spiders. The two types of spiders are:
- Carnivores
- Herbivores
The carnivore spiders feed on the flesh and meat of other animals. Baheera kiplingi, a jumping spider species, feed on plants and plant products, including plant sap and nectar.
Next on the list are web-building and hunting spiders. Web-building spiders consume flying insects like mosquitoes, flies, moths, and butterflies that get trapped in their web. In contrast, the hunting spiders live in concealed areas and wait for their prey to come close so that they can hunt them down. Few predator spiders run fast enough to capture insects like crickets, grasshoppers, and beetles and eat them.
The diet of spiders varies according to the spider species. The common feeding pattern of all spider species is they only eat living prey. While their food source is insects and other spiders. Some larger spider species can also eat up other small animals such as small lizards, woodlice (slaters), millipedes, frogs, and even birds.
Spiders live a solitary life and cannibalize each other as an act of survival. In some cases, the female spiders show no maternal instincts towards their hatched spiderlings as they tend to eat them.
How Often Do Spiders Eat?
Unlike humans, spiders don’t require three meals a day. That said, spiders are opportunists. If insects are available, they can eat up to 4 times per day. They can catch and feed on as many insects as they can at one go.
The numbers, and types of potential prey available in the vicinity of spiders, determine the dietary habits of spiders. When there is a scarcity in the insect, they have no option left but to survive without food. They can live for weeks without any food. The water becomes a necessity for the survival of spiders when the food is unavailable. Hence, sometimes spiders move their base to places close to the water source.
Wrapping Up
The best part of the blog is to know that you are not a part of the food chain. Yay! But, don’t just relax yet! Spider infestation is still a nuisance, and no homeowner can let spiders invade their property. Spiders are always a problem. If you suspect a spider infestation, call the pest management professionals to nip spiders in the bud.