gnats and moulters and cocohuts...oh my

[ladybug15057]

Ewwwww, my thoughts here would be it wouldn't be cool to have a pet spider in a tank with hermies. But I have just written to an Entomologist asking for his thoughts on the situation.

[CrabbyJo]

I wondered just a little about it. It may be likely that the spider could carry disease to the hermits. I would think it may not cause too much harm to leave one little spider in the tank, but introducing more insects is not a good idea. I've read that adding live crickets is not a good idea as they are much more likely to carry disease that can hurt your crabs.

[ladybug15057]

My thoughts would be if there were no insects in the tank for them to eat they may begin to munch on the hermies. Still haven't heard back, but will post when I do.
On CSJ it was posted there is a cricket disease that has hit crickets and that crabber will not feed crickets to his hermies now. Honestly, with all the other protein sources that can be offered, I am not offering freeze dried crickets now either.

[ladybug15057]

Just got this about the spider:

"I don't think a small spider could pierce most of the exoskeleton of a hermit, however a bite in a joint in the exoskeleton could be a potential problem. I would also worry about the sticky web; if that were to get around the eyes, antennae, or mouthparts it's going to be hard to remove."

[CrabbyJo]

That's a very good point, Marie. Spiders bite US for goodness sake, it makes sense they might bite our hermies too.
No spiders in the tank!

I too have heard of the cricket problem, and do not feed crickets. Mealworms are an excellent source of chitin and protein. Good 'nuff.

[ladybug15057]

I know and something I didn't think about was the webbing and it getting stuck on the hermies eyes and antenna. It probably wouldn't take much for the spiders to find a way to bite/munch the hermies either if bugs weren't handy. After all it is other insects (arthropods) that spiders catch to eat!