help with this spider please

[carly82]

Hi everyone, I am hoping I could get your help with identifying this spider. We live in the uk and have a leopard gecko and purchased a box of crickets. Im not sure where the crickets come from,but they arent from the UK, as the box states the crickets arent from here and shouldnt be released in the wild. Anyway, upon looking at the box of crickets we seen this spider that you see in the picture. We would like to know what it is. And is it poisionous? Im worried it might infect the crickets that we give our gecko. Also worried that it could get out and hurt us and our dogs as well. Many thanks in advance.




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[Mandy]

Hi, Carly, what a coincidence! A few weeks back I got the exact same species in my batch of crickets! The spider is a female Thanatus vulgaris, a type of "Running crab spider" in the family Philodromidae. They live in both Europe and North America now and are notorious for being found in commercial cricket boxes. They are not dangerously venomous to people or pets (dogs and cats)... but they do EAT crickets, so if you leave her in there with your crickets, she'll just keep eating them.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting!

[Mandy]

P.S. this kind of spider is pretty fast when they get spooked, but if you can get her into a jar, it looks like she's ready to lay eggs soon. You could watch the babies hatch and stuff.

[carly82]

P.S. this kind of spider is pretty fast when they get spooked, but if you can get her into a jar, it looks like she's ready to lay eggs soon. You could watch the babies hatch and stuff.

Lol im one of those people who is absolutley terrified of spiders. So watching it lay eggs will pretty much creep me the hell out. Im thinking we should just get a new box of crickets, but what do we do with this one? Thanks for your reply!

[Mandy]

Well, technically, you'd probably not be able to see her actually laying the eggs since they do it at night and it's a fairly quick process... but about a month later you'd be able to see the cute babies after they come out of the egg sac. Sometimes the best way to battle arachnophobia is just to look at spiders for a while and watch how they move and what they do.

I don't think you need to get a new box of crickets, actually. Do you have anyone around that is not-so-afraid of spiders? I'm sure you (or they) can manage to catch it in a jar or something. Spiders don't infest anything and they don't spread disease at all... so there's nothing wrong with the crickets. It's just one lonely spider in there with too much food to eat, lol.

[carly82]

Haha my other half is more scared than i am! But it looks like I gotta get mrs.spider out of there soon. So i gotta tough it up and get her out! Thanks Mandy!

[Mandy]

Oh, haha! Sorry, I'd do it for you if I were nearby... but I think you're over the Atlantic from me. I don't know what kind of container your crickets came in, but you might be able to just dump everything out into a bigger box or container, then nudge the spider out into the open with a stick or wooden ruler or something, then put a cup over it. The spider can climb up things, so once it climbs up the inside of the cup, you can just tip the cup over and put a lid on it... then take it outside and let it go. Their eyesight is not very good, so if she seems like she's walking towards you or something, don't worry, it's just a coincidence.

Glad we could help! (Well, with the spider ID, at least)