Tiny spiders eat tinier prey: springtails, gnats, fruit flies, aphids, thrips, and mites. A spider that is only a few millimeters long cannot take on a cricket or a moth, so it hunts the smallest insects it can find, often in gardens, houseplants, and window corners.
What Tiny Spiders Eat in the Wild
- Springtails: tiny soil insects that live in damp leaf litter, a main food for many baby spiders.
- Gnats and fruit flies: easy prey for small web-builders near windows and kitchens.
- Aphids and thrips: small sap-feeding pests that tiny garden spiders pick off plants.
- Mites: eaten by some of the smallest hunting spiders.
- Insect eggs and larvae: small, soft, and easy to carry off.
Web-builders such as dwarf sheet-web spiders wait for tiny insects to land in their webs. Hunters, such as small jumping spiders, stalk prey on leaves and walls. A few spiders also drink nectar. One Central American jumping spider, Bagheera kiplingi, eats mostly plant food, but this is a rare exception.
Are Tiny Spiders Good for Your Garden?
Yes. Spiders are among the best natural pest controllers. A garden with many tiny spiders usually has fewer aphids, gnats, and thrips. Avoid broad-spectrum insecticides, which kill spiders along with pests.
Tiny Spiders Indoors
Small spiders in your house are most likely hunting fruit flies, gnats, or ants. Treating the cause (ripe fruit, damp houseplant soil, open food) usually gets rid of both the pests and the spiders. A vacuum is the fastest way to clear webs.
Feeding a Tiny Pet Spider
If you keep a small spider, offer flightless fruit flies or springtails every other day. Mist one corner of the enclosure lightly for water, and remove any prey that is not eaten. For baby spiders, see what spiderlings eat. For larger house spiders, see what tiny house spiders eat and what to feed tiny spiders.
Bottom Line
Tiny spiders eat springtails, gnats, fruit flies, aphids, thrips, and mites. They help control pests, and the best way to reduce them is to reduce the small insects they eat.
