Do spiders die in winter? Do they hibernate?

Question

Or do they just hide?

Answer 1

Some arthropods (including spiders and insects) have a sort of antifreeze in their bloodstream that allows them to hibernate without freezing, depending on the conditions. Many will create a burrow or locate a place to lay eggs that will survive the winter. Spiders are great survivors and many will find a hole in a board or in the ground to wait out the winter. Some do die, others find places to hibernate.

One strategy is to enter a state called diapause. This is a preprogrammed response in insects caused by a change in the amount of daylight they receive. Their bodies start to go into a state of stasis and they instinctively find hiding places. They will produce a natural antifreeze and then enter this hibernation-like state until the temperatures become very cold. This triggers their bodies to expect a warming period and then they wake up for the spring.

Answer 2

Do Spiders Hibernate

Answer 3

No spiders don't die or hibernate, they just shelter and do less. Some spiders live for 2 or 3 years, so they have to be able to make it through the winter.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Do spiders die in winter? Do they hibernate?

Answer 5

I found one between the ice cold basement wall and a dresser, had a very interesting web, looks like it was made for hibernation, they way that it covered the spider looked like the spider was nice and snuggled in there, I put it in a jar, hasn't moved much, but at least it will be warm til spring comes

Answer 6

Spiders are like nomads. They go from piles of fecal matter to fecal matter to find warmth in the winter. They tend to eat snow and ice so stay alive. Spiders also, will live on cats to travel. Spiders also and most importantly, die in tempratures lower than 6 degrees celcius

Answer 7

This winter look under the eves of your house. See those little balls that look like cotton?
Yup. Hibernating spiders.

Answer 8

good question, some arthropods hibernate, the larger species of spiders definately do, but alas as is natures way, the rest just die or end up on Oprah (todays topic ladies and gentlemen-why are the black widow spiders such MANEATERS!!!)-tomorrows topic-(and i'm giving every insect in my studio audience cars by the way-the daddy long legs-whats it like being the most poisonous spider in the world but having no teeth to eject the poison? (AWW from studio audience) we'll be right back after these commercialls!!

Answer 9

Here is a section from a book about spiders. Great book if you ever want to know more about spiders than you thought you could:) Some of it is probably a bit technical, but hopefully you can get the answer from it. Enjoy. Oh, and spdiers can live much longer than two months. I raised one common house spider from an egg, and it lived 4 or 5 years (it escaped, so I don't know what the maximum time it could have lived is). Some spiders (such as tarantulas) can live up to 30 years.



Overwintering

In the temperate zones, poikilothermic animals have to adjust to the harsh cycles of the seasons. Spiders have developed several adaptations to survive such adverse conditions as cold, dampness, flooding--and naturally, lack of food. Spiders meet these challenges b colonizing the appropriate microbabitats, by increasing their resistance to cold, and by reducing their metabolic rate. They are thus well prepared for overwintering and, as a consequence, mortality during the cold winter months is surprisingly low.

About 85% of the spider fauna overwinter in the soil, mainly in leaf litter, which is a good insulator against the cold. During this time most spiders assume a rigid posture, with the legs drawn close to the body so that the exposed body surface is kept to a minimum. The microhabitat of the leaf-litter zone protects not only from extreme temperature fluctuations but also from desiccation (Edgar and Loenen, 1974). Even heavy show cover is by no means lethal for spiders. On the contrary, the insulating properties of a layer of snow ensure a rather steady temperature of about 0*C (Buche, 1966). Thus, ambient air temperatures of -40*C, which have been recorded, for example, in Canada, have little effect of the spiders beneath the snow (Aitchison, 1978, 1987).

Spiders of the temperate zones can be put into one of five groups, based on their annual cycles or periods of maturation (Schaefer, 1976a,b, 1977): (1) eurychronous species which take a long time to mature and overwinter in various developmental stages (these spiders constitute 23% fo the species investigated); (20 stenochronous species whose reproductive period lasts from spring until summer and which overwinter as nymphs (45%); (3) stenochronous species whose period of reproduction is during the fall and whose young spiderlings remain inside the egg case during winter (7%); (4) diplochronous species, having two separate reproductive periods (spring and fall) and overwintering in the adult stage (4-13%); and (5) stenochronous species with their reproduction period in winter, the winter-active spiders (9%). Some members of the linyphiids (erigonids), lycosids, clubionid, thomisids, and tetragnathids belong to this group. They can build webs even below 0*C (Fig. 204) and also catch prey (e.g., collembolans) (Hagvar, 1973; Aitchison, 1984).

The winter-active spiders of the temperate zones are mostly fond among the family Linyphiidae (Fig. 204). They are not particularly resistant to cold but simply most active at rather low temperatures.Below -4*C they become as rigid as other spiders do, and below -7*C they die. Those spiders thta overwinter passively are much more cold resistant. Most garden spiders (Araneus species) can withstand temperatues of -20*C, even in unprotected locations (Kirchner, 1973). It is not quite clear how these spiders achieve their remarkable resistance to cold. It is known that the spider's hymolymph contains glycerol, which astc as an antifreezing agent, and that the glycerol content is markedly higher in winter than in summer. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely thta the glycerol alone can account for such resistance to cold, since it has been found that this chemical lowers the freezing point of the spider's hemolymph by only 1*C (kirchner and Kestler, 1969). The freezing point (or melting point, to be more precise), however, is not equuivalent to the much lower undercooling point (i.e., just before ice crystals are formed) that is measured in ive spider (Kirchner, 1987).This is apparently due to certain proteins of the hemolymph, which can lower the freezing point by 20*C (Duman, 1979; Husby and Zachariassen, 1980; Zachariassen, 1985). It remains still a bit mysterious, however, how cold-resistant spiders manage to survive long and cold winters (Kirchner and Kullmann, 1975).

Many spider eggs can also withstand emperatures as low as -24*C (Schaefer, 1976a,b, 1977). One would expect that the egg stage would thus be an ideal form to survive the winter, yet only 7% of our spiders actually use this strategy. Perhaps it is more favorable for a young spider to be self-sufficient by early spring.

Answer 10

they live in my house!

seriously they can't hibernate because one lives in my front garden & it is out on its web in all seasons maybe he just finds a warm place to sleep for the night & comes back out during the day