Spiders in my naturalistic viv?!

[firereptiles]

I think I have spiders in my Quad geckos cage! :shock:

A couple days ago before I cleaned my gecko cage, I saw some spider webbings at the bottom corner of the cage...
So I try to clean the cage, just wiped the glass, and try to get rid of the webs.
The next day, more webs have appeared, now even in different areas too...

I'm not sure what species of spider this is... maybe small house spider? Because sometimes there are small spiders in my house.. black, less than 1" usually.

and I've never seen the actual spider in the cage, I just saw the webbings.
Seems like this spider been there for a while... not so sure too.
The quads doesn't seem to be bothered by the webs for now, because the webbings are closer to the ground.

Is there any way I can get rid of the spider without having to redo my viv?
Are spiders actually beneficial for the viv? or maybe dangerous?

I've attached some pics...
The webbings are behind the Red flower.

 

[tghsmith]

short of hunting them down and removing them no, one or two small spiders might actually help keep small flies or other unwanteds in check, If they are there some prey for them must be present.

 

[theperfectlestat]

It could be harmless, but you should be careful. I found spiders in one of my vivs recently. I caught them and took them to a biologist, who IDed them as some sort of South American relative to the Black Widow. They make webs just like that. Personally, I'd try to get rid of them.

 

[Kevin McRae]

I wouldn't be worried about your phelsuma, but who wants webs all over their beautiful enclosure?

I read in Neil Meister's uroplatus article in a addition of Reptiles Magazine that baby uroplatus can be killed by spiders and their webs. If you leave the eggs in the enclosure, or miss an egg that could be a problem with quads too.

 

[jabberwock486]

i have a few of these in the tokay tank. most likely a house spider who has set up shop in the tokay tank. i find the tokays manage the spiders. in fact i would even say they farm the spiders. they let them get big and then eat them.

these do control the small flies and other insects that do get in. the webs are not distracting in my cage. kinda cool to see. the spiders rebuild webs like these daily.

 

[firereptiles]

Thanks for the reply guys!
I've kept an eye on them, and the geckos don't really seems to be bothered by the webs.
But like Kevin said, I'm worried if the spider breed and have hundreds of tiny spiders running around in the cage...

The quads don't seem to be very excited anymore when I put some crickets in, they used to. Maybe they eat some of the spider too?

So I tried to clean the cage again from the web, and tried to find the spider.
I took the quads out, and repeatedly poke the grounds, shake some tree branches to see if any spider would come out. But nothing moved... It's so hard to find them.

Just then... I found one Quad egg inside a hollow tree branch!
Now I definitely want to get rid of the spider, because a newborn baby gecko might have problems with the webs...

But after yesterday's clean up, I see new webbings again in the same area...