Spider Food

Spiders get hungry, and the Joro Spider is no different. What are their dining habits? What do they eat? (hint: not hummingbirds)

Insects, of course!

Which insects depends on where the web is located. If it is located, for example, on a porch, the porchlight will attract moths. That means moths for dinner. If it is on a tree in the woods, beetles will be part of its diet. They’ve been known to munch on lady bugs.

Their web is unusual. If you look carefully, you’ll see a gorgeous orb web in the center, with two asymmetrical layers of web bookending it. The web might be six feet wide.

The silk is a light yellow, giving in an amazing golden hue when the sun is just so.

They do eat adult brown marmorated stink bugs. Those are also invasive, so that’s good. The stink bugs eat peaches, among other fruits, and so the Joro Spider is helping protect an important Georgian product.

Now This is Weird

Dewdrop spiders, a type of kleptoparasite, have been noticed hanging out in Joro spider webs. Kleptoparasite means what you might be guessing: these spiders steal from other spiders. In general, it’s a form of feeding in which one animal intentionally takes food from another animal. A number of spiders are known to do this to other spiders. Plenty of birds will swipe meals from other birds. Lions, hyenas, and bears (oh my!).

The dewdrop spider is tiny, shiny, and pear-shaped (imagine a dewdrop). They might also be yellow, green, or reddish-brown. This allows them to be camouflaged, especially as they hide out in the corners of webs. As the Joro has a massive web, that could be quite a distance. The female will even lay her egg sac in the other spider’s web.

They steal from other spiders, not just the Joro.

I don’t know if the Joro spider and the dewdrop spider go full WWE on each other over a dead bug. “To be the spider, you’ve gotta beat the spider!”

Learn What Eats a Joro Spider