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Monday, 27 April 2026 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eFor some weeks now I've been watching a couple of large huntsman spiders grow to about the size of my hand. I like huntsman spiders, and these have been wandering around the ceiling and tops of the walls in every room.
The population of cockroaches has plummetted, and I think they may be responsible. Unfortunately the cute little barking geckos seem to have disappeared too, which saddens me.
Also, I like to keep a small population of several non-venomous spiders (I believe that's their actual name) in my room, spinning frail webs around the ceiling to keep me safe by snaring any mosquitoes that get in. But they're gone too.
That puzzles me. How would the hunstman spiders get them? The webs are far too weak to let a huntsman venture out onto them. Perhaps they use the jumping spiders' trick of tapping the web in a way that feels to the little non-venomous spider like prey caught in it, then grabbing the unsuspecting spider when it comes to investigate.
They seem to be cleaning the house.
The population of cockroaches has plummetted, and I think they may be responsible. Unfortunately the cute little barking geckos seem to have disappeared too, which saddens me.
Also, I like to keep a small population of several non-venomous spiders (I believe that's their actual name) in my room, spinning frail webs around the ceiling to keep me safe by snaring any mosquitoes that get in. But they're gone too.
That puzzles me. How would the hunstman spiders get them? The webs are far too weak to let a huntsman venture out onto them. Perhaps they use the jumping spiders' trick of tapping the web in a way that feels to the little non-venomous spider like prey caught in it, then grabbing the unsuspecting spider when it comes to investigate.
They seem to be cleaning the house.
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Date: 2026-04-28 12:20 pm (UTC)Huntsmen, usually climb high, IME. No idea if they'd eat spiders, or 'roaches.
I have been happily Huntsman free for years.
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Date: 2026-04-30 02:04 pm (UTC)Huntsman spiders definitely eat other spiders.
In a previous house I had to be careful turning a large water tap on because a big, black, dangerous-looking spider lived right next to it (I can't bear to kill even dangerously poisonous spiders). One day I was walking past it and my eye was caught by it looking a bit weird. That was a dim corner of the room so I leaned closer for a better look and saw that a huntsman was consuming the scary spider. Yay!
Since this pair of large huntsman spiders have been on the prowl the cockroach numbers have definitely declined -- especially the smaller, younger ones. The large cockroaches, two or three inches long, are still around, but I get the feeling there are less of them too.
Maybe the larger cockroaches are cannibalising the younger ones... I don't know if they do that... oh, I just googled it, and yes, they do. :(
I was about to say that's not very wise of them, but they've been surviving for more than 300 million years, so human morality probably doesn't apply to them. Their strategies obviously work for them. Though I doubt that the social cockroaches (termites) cannibalise their own. Termites are wonderful little animals.