🧠 Research Your Jumping Spider

Before building your spider’s new home, take time to learn about its species. Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are small, intelligent, and surprisingly curious. For beginners, species such as Phidippus audax (bold jumper) or Phidippus regius (regal jumper) are ideal.

Additionally, encourage your child to look up where these spiders live, what they eat, and how they behave. This can easily become a fun research-based science activity. For instance, your child might create a drawing or a short presentation about their findings. As a result, they’ll strengthen their observation and research skills while bonding with you.

🏠 Choose the Right Enclosure

Once you understand your spider’s needs, it’s time to set up the enclosure. Fortunately, a jumping spider habitat doesn’t have to be large. A 6x6x8-inch container works perfectly for one spider.

To begin with, make sure the enclosure includes:

• Good ventilation: mesh sides or small drilled air holes.
• A secure lid: since jumping spiders can leap many times their body length.
• Clear walls: so you can easily observe behavior.

We went with the Zilla Micro Habitat Terrarium, Arboreal, with Locking Latch. It was easy to assemble, has a latch at the top, with a front lid that opens from the top down.

🌿 Build a Natural Habitat

Now that the enclosure is ready, it’s time to make it feel like home. This is the fun part of creating a habitat for your spider! Together, you’ll build a mini ecosystem that mimics the spider’s natural environment.

Silk Cocoons with Magnets: Every spider loves a hiding place. Silk cocoons make cozy, secure spots for resting, sleeping, molting, or even eating prey. They also give your spider a sense of safety — and it’s fun when your spider peeks out to see what you’re doing!

🪵 Choosing the Right Substrate

Add 1–2 inches of coco fiber or organic soil helps with moisture control. We ended up using thick moss found in the forest. It provides a soft landing spot if the spider falls — and it looks beautiful too.

🌲 Add Climbing and Hiding Features

Add twigs, plants, or pieces of cork bark for exploration. We even found a pinecone, and Dax and Donut have spent hours climbing and exploring it! Use leaves, bark, or small natural items for resting and hiding spaces.

Mushroom Ledges & Food Bowl with Magnets: These make fun little shelf units for your spider! They love exploring and often stand on wall ledges. The food bowl is great for mealworms and can be placed close to their favorite resting spot for easy access. We found this especially helpful for our senior spider.

Webbed Moss Ribbon with Magnets: Jumping spiders love to climb. However, senior spiders sometimes lose their sticky grip on surfaces. Their tarsal pads — especially the setae — wear down with age after their final molt. This makes it harder for them to cling to smooth walls and can cause them to take fewer jumps. Webbed moss ribbons provide a safe climbing surface and help older spiders stay active.

💡 Lighting and Heat Safety

Place the enclosure near a bright window or under a soft LED light. However, avoid direct sunlight. Spiders can easily overheat because they can’t escape the heat buildup inside an enclosure.

🔥 Tip: Items collected from outdoors (like moss, twigs, and pinecones) should be baked for 30 minutes at 180–200°F to sterilize them. We set ours on a baking sheet and baked at 200°F for half an hour — quick and easy!

Building a tiny terrarium gives your child a chance to be creative while learning about habitat design and biology. Plus, it’s a fun, hands-on way to connect with nature right at home.

💧 Maintain Moisture and Humidity

After the habitat is set, you’ll need to maintain the right environment. Jumping spiders thrive in moderate humidity, so mist lightly with filtered water once a day or every other day. However, avoid overwatering; the enclosure should never stay soggy.

Fine water mist sprayer: Amazon sells a Hula Home Spray Bottle for Hair that is cheap and has lasted.

Meanwhile, use this as a teaching opportunity! Explain how the water cycle works — evaporation, condensation, and precipitation — all happening inside your spider’s world. Consequently, your child will see science in action every day.

🪰Feed and Observe Your Spider

Next comes the most exciting part: feeding time! Provide your spider with tiny live insects such as flightless fruit flies or flies twice a week. In the summer, these are easy to catch with a clear glass. During the winter we feed our spider small mealworms. (To store mealworms in the fridge, use an airtight container with ventilation holes, a bedding of oats or bran, and a water gel cube.) In addition, make sure to remove any uneaten insects to keep the enclosure clean.

To make it even more engaging, start a Spider Journal together. Record feeding times, molting dates, and interesting behaviors. Over time, this habit will help your child notice patterns and develop strong observation skills. A fun activity is to pull out the discarded exoskeleton it sheds to grow, resembling a small, hollow replica of the spider and observe!

❤️ Respect and Observe

Even though jumping spiders are friendly, they are delicate. Therefore, it’s best to observe rather than handle them. Watch for signs of curiosity — they often track your movement with their large, adorable eyes! We often take out jumping spiders on small field trips to our homeschool co-op so they can observe new places and people (all while being observed)!

Some jumping spiders are quite adventurous. If you have to remove your jumping spider, use a flat headed paint brush. Offer up the bristle side for the spider to walk on to. Our first spider, Dax, was gentle and sweet and would walk right up to our hands and explore. She also loved kids! (Donut isn’t as adventurous and prefers to watch us from the safety of her home. We love to see her peering out at us, watching with curiosity!)

Encourage your middle schooler to take short videos or sketches of their spider. In doing so, they’ll practice patience and appreciation for small living creatures. As a result, your project becomes both a science lesson and a mindfulness exercise.

🌈 Why This Project Is Great for Families

Ultimately, setting up a jumping spider habitat is more than a pet project — it’s a hands-on STEM activity that combines creativity, science, and responsibility. It also teaches observation, respect for animals, and curiosity about the natural world.

Whether you’re homeschooling or looking for a desk homework companion for your child, this project helps your family connect with nature. Moreover, it sparks meaningful conversations about ecosystems, biology, and environmental care.

Dax was our first spider. We received her as a senior. She went on to live another year with us. She was gentle, trusting, curious and if you ask us, adorable! She especially loved kids and would come out of her silk cocoon for hours just to watch them, as they watched her. She definitely changed our outlook on spiders.

Baby Donut was super tiny when we received her! She’s shy but curious and almost twice the size as Dax as an adult!