What happens to spiders in the winter?
Jumping spiders like this handsome individual are one type of spider that spend part of the winter on the hunt underneath the blanket of snow. A HILLMAN
BY BENNY ACORN
Just like many bugs, a lot of spiders will spend the winter in a deep sleep, or will wait as eggs for the warmer months to arrive. The spiders that do this are mostly the kinds that spin webs. Despite this, winter can still be a great time to be a spider lover! Many of us are aware that some spiders will enter our homes to keep warm during the winter, but others choose to live in the warm space underneath the snow and close to the soil in deep snowbanks. Here these spiders will frolic and hunt, forming an exciting and complex ecosystem with the other bugs and mammals that make their home under the snow during the coldest days of the year!
This article originally ran in Nature Alberta Magazine - Winter 2023.