Opening your book
The first week with a spider
The nervous part is nearly always the first few days, so here is what I tell everyone to expect.
The questions I get most, spiders first
Is she dangerous?
No. Jumping spiders are not medically significant, they would rather leave than argue, and a bite is very unlikely and no worse than a nettle sting. They are curious rather than defensive, which is most of why people fall for them.
She has not eaten. Should I worry?
Usually not. Spiders skip meals before a molt, after a big meal, when they are cool, and sometimes for no reason you will ever learn. A plump abdomen means she is fine. A shrivelled one, over weeks, is worth a message to me.
She has sealed herself in a little silk bag.
That is a molt, and it is good news. Leave her alone, skip meals, and do not open the sac. She will come out soft and pale, and harden up over a day or two. Mark her sealed up and I will stop nudging you about meals until she is out.
Do I need to mist her?
Mist the webbing lightly whenever it has dried out, and let it dry again between times. They drink the droplets rather than from a dish. You want a little humidity, never a wet enclosure. The schedule I keep goes home with every spider, and you can always ask me for mine.
She got out.
Close the door, turn off fans, and look up. They climb and they head for light and high corners, usually curtains or the top of a window frame. Put her enclosure open on the floor nearby. Most wanderers are found within a few feet of where they slipped away.
How long will she live?
Most of the ones I keep live about a year as adults, females rather longer than males. It is a short friendship, which is part of why the record in this app is worth keeping.
Can I hold her?
Some will walk onto a hand quite happily and some would rather not, and both are fine. Sit on the floor, keep it short, and never grab. Let her decide.
The other molters
Scorpions, mantids and millipedes keep the same calendar a spider does: they eat, they hide, they climb out of their own skin. Most of the spider advice above carries straight over.
It has buried itself, or sealed itself away.
Almost always a molt on the way. Leave it be, skip meals, and mark it sealed up — I will stop nudging you until it is out. Digging it up to check is the one thing that can go wrong here, so do not.
A mantis is hanging upside down and ignoring food.
That is how they molt, and the hanging room matters: they need about twice their body length of clear space below the perch. Take uneaten food out — loose crickets and a molting mantis are a bad pairing.
Will a scorpion sting me?
Every scorpion can, so the honest answer is to handle them with a catch cup and not with hands, however placid yours seems. I choose what I keep and sell for temperament, and I am glad to talk through your species in particular.
The millipede has not surfaced in days.
Ordinary. They live most of their life under the substrate, and surface mostly at night. Fresh leaf litter disappearing is how you know things are being eaten, whether or not you ever see it happen.
The colonies
Snails, isopods and roaches are kept as a bin more than as individuals, and the record here works the same way — one page for the colony.
The snail has sealed itself into its shell.
Snails seal over with a dried film when it is cool or dry, and wait. It is a pause, not an ending. Mark it sealed in, keep the enclosure barely damp, and it will pick its own moment to come back out.
Tiny white specks are moving in the bin.
Usually springtails, and they are welcome — they clean up what the colony leaves. A colony bin is a small ecosystem, and the extra tenants are part of it working.
What do they actually eat?
Leaf litter and rotting wood are the staple, vegetable ends are the treat, and snails want a cuttlebone for their shell. Little and often beats a big pile that moulds.
The quiet things
Plants, mosses and fungi keep a slower clock. Nothing here happens in a day, which is exactly why writing waterings down beats trying to remember them.
How often do I water?
On no schedule at all. Lift the pot — water when it is light, wait while it is heavy. The record you keep here is better at learning your room than any rule I could print.
The moss has gone pale and crisp.
Most mosses dry to a pale sleep and wake green again with a misting, the same trick they have pulled outdoors forever. Mark it resting if it is having a dry spell on purpose, and I will leave you alone about it.
Mushrooms appeared in the pot.
A surprise guest, not an invasion. They grow from spores that were always in the soil and mostly pass in a week. Pick them out if you would rather not have them, and keep them away from pets who graze.
Do I fertilise it?
Sparingly, in the growing season, at half whatever the packet claims. Moss wants none at all — rain, light and patience are the whole recipe.
Deeper reading
Every care sheet I write goes up on the shop, and whatever you keep here will point at its own. Plants, mosses and the stranger things included, as I get to them.
What this app is
The parlour room ask me anything
I answer every message myself. It may not be straight away, but it will be me. The room asks you to make a name the first time, so the other keepers know who they are talking to.
Rather use the full room? Open it in a tab.