# About the spider in my bathroom (lame)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 22, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484 "2008-01-22T08:41:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484/1 "2008-01-22T08:41:27Z")

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There was this little spider that lived in my shower recess. He (or she) had been there for weeks if not months before I accidentally killed him while cleaning the other day.

My question is wouldn’t he have needed something to eat? I toyed with the idea of capturing him and moving him outside but never did. He sure wouldn’t have been going outside to eat while I was at work and then returning to his web in my shower recess every day. Could he have gone for weeks without eating anything at all? What gives?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484/2 "2008-01-22T15:01:58Z")

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Spiders are predators who need to eat, same as any other predator.

What you’re missing is that tiny house spiders are eating even tinier house _bugs_, bugs that you can’t see unless you know they’re there and go looking for them, bugs like teeny mites and fruit flies and baby cockroaches and silverfish and other itty-bitty things.

So when you see that a spider has set up housekeeping inside your house, ask yourself what it’s eating. And then go clean the house. 😃

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**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484/3 "2008-01-22T15:04:29Z")

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From the Google ad at the bottom of the page:

Diabetic Eating

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**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484/4 "2008-01-22T23:10:07Z")

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[QUOTE=buns3000]  
Could he have gone for weeks without eating anything at all?  
[/QUOTE]  
Yes.

If Australian house spiders are anything like those over here they can go for several months without food or water.

[Link](http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/348.shtml).

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**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-spider-in-my-bathroom-lame/434484/5 "2008-01-22T23:13:10Z")

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[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]

What you’re missing is that tiny house spiders are eating even tinier house _bugs_,  
[/QUOTE]

"Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite’em.

And little fleas have littler fleas, and so _ad infinitum._"