When you have spiders in the house all winter long, what do they eat to keep alive?

Answer 1

Spiders that are common in the house during winter are mostly there to find warmth to ride out the winter months, and they will also seek out water actively, this is why they are usually quite common in bathrooms and kitchens. They will however not pass up the opportunity to eat any insects they may find during this time. Even the cleanest homes in the world have some insect or another, things like silverfish, bedbugs, house flies, fruit flies, cockroaches and house centipedes are usually in any home and are very hard to get rid of. Spider will eat any of these critters if they happen to find them or each other as most spiders are cannibalistic.
Most of the spiders found in homes belong to the family Clubionidae, which are the sac spiders. They are usually yellowish in color. These spiders spend almost all winter in their little sacs that they construct with silk. These are those little silken hammocks that you will commonly find in the bathroom or the kitchen.
They are completely prepared to last the winter without feeding. They will however eat anything that gets within range.

Hope this helps!
here is an image of a common sac spider:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/76904
notice the sac it is in, this is a very common sight in homes during the winter months.
Note also that most spiders found in homes are not of the web-building varieties, yes there are some but the majority are actively hunting spiders.

Answer 2

Sharon, Spiders eat various insects that get caught in their webs during the winter. If they're in your house, they're less likely to eat flying insects, but they do eat those when they are caught as well. If you have potted plants and keep them watered well during the dry wintertime, you might sometimes see little black flies around the plants. In addition, as clean as you can possibly keep your house, there will always still be things like ants, earwigs, roaches, pillbugs and silverfish around for them to eat.

Answer 3

RE: any home remedies to keep spiders out of the house? I believe we are seeing wolf spiders (mississippi) but its been like every other day that i see one. and while the wolf spider isnt harmful.. it freaks me out because i have a baby and a 3 yr old. any home remedies?

Answer 4

Mostly insects

Answer 5

maybe they can eat you to keep alive

Answer 6

The roaches in your bed

Answer 7

Mostly each other and small insects.


Doug

Answer 8

They eat each other, OH YES!! and you when you are sleeping.

Answer 9

your blood, sometimes, and small insects

Answer 10

well, they wait until you are all snug in bed and fast asleep, and then............



they raid your refrigerator