How to care for wild jumping spider (Southern Ontario)

:bluehelp: Advice

Hi everyone! I'm looking for advice on respecting a wild jumping spider that has taken refuge in my home. Normally I would leave things alone and not bother asking this type of question since there are probably hundreds of spiders in my home and I just don't see them, but this little guy has settled in on my shelf where I'm germinating my seeds. I'm curious about a few things:

  1. Is this a good environment for him? The grow lights are on for 16 hours and off for 8, there's a fan blowing, sometimes I put the heat on to keep the room at 71°F, and I'm watering/misting things as needed.

  2. Should I do anything for him/what can I do for him? He's been here for a while, I first noticed him about 2-3 days ago. Does he need food? I caught some mosquitos and put them in around where he was chilling but he didn't seem interested. I've seen the fun enclosures people have for their pets, should I put something fun in there for him or are the plants enough? Just looking to respect him and also make it clear that I'm not going to harm him.

  3. why is he so small lol? I posted a pic of him in this sub the other day which you can find on my profile, unfortunately it's a zoomed image so it's not clear how tiny he is but MAN he is mini! And I've seen that pet jumping spiders are usually at least as big as a dime. This guy is barely bigger than the perlite chunks in my soil. I'm in southern Ontario if someone wants to take a stab at IDing him (photo in profile)

Anyway thanks for the advice, looking forward to hearing what I can do for this lil guy and how I can keep things good for him.

Posted Apr 9, 2025, 8:27 PM UTC

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