Do Spiders Like Light?

You can find spiders all over the world in basically any environment imaginable. They live and thrive in fields, forests, and swamps in both hot and cold weather. Quite a bit is known about spiders and their natural environments, but there’s also a few topics that raise quite a few questions. Since spiders tend to grouped in with insects, and insects usually go crazy for light sources, many people are led to wonder about whether or not spiders like light.

This post will detail a spider’s attraction (or lack thereof) to light and why exactly they behave in that way. It will also include helpful information for your own spider’s enclosure.

Do Spiders Like Light?

In short, spiders neither “like” light or “dislike” light. To set things straight, spiders don’t necessarily have opinions on their living conditions. They’re complex creatures, but they aren’t capable of very complex thought. Therefore, any preference that a spider seems to have is simply a result of their evolution.

If a spider has evolved in a very bright environment with plenty of light and has thrived, then it will tend to keep wanting to live in a similar environment. Conversely, spiders that evolved in darker environments will tend to keep living there.

Over millions of years, spiders have evolved and adapted to those environments and become very proficient in hunting and surviving within them. Therefore, they didn’t choose to exist within a light or dark environment — it’s just where they’re from!

Some spiders are visual hunters, such as the large-eyed jumping spider. Spiders like this have a much easier time hunting in an environment with plenty of light. Other spiders prefer hunting during the day because their main prey is only active during the day time, so that’s when they need to be up and active.

Conversely, some spiders prefer hunting at night, such as the wolf spider which uses vibrations and odors to track down insects. Other spiders, such as orb-webs, prefer to hunt creatures that are most active at night such as moths.

Many spiders, though, will gladly hunt in the light and the dark as long as they can catch prey in both conditions. For instance, a spider may hunt during the day because of the high volume of insects being active, but they may also hunt at night due to the overall lack of predators.

Spider web on lightSpider web on light

What Causes Spiders To Stay Near Lights?

If you’ve been outside at night, you may have noticed spiders posting up near light sources. Taking into account what was just discussed above, this may seem counter-intuitive in nature. However, this behavior makes plenty of sense when taking into consideration the tendencies of prey insects.

Many insects approach light sources not because they’re attracted to the light, but because it throws off their sense of direction and disorients them greatly. Insects such as moths and mosquitoes are theorized to use the moon and stars as a type of navigation tool. Since they’re many miles away, they don’t tend to shift direction very frequently.

However, street lights or lamps can actually be reached by these insects. When they fly into these light sources, they’re not quite sure how to adjust for it and end up flying around aimlessly. This is why you’ll commonly see many insects swarming around light sources during the late hours of the night.

Spiders, though, don’t fall for this — they’re a bit more clever. They’re able to recognize the pattern of insects flying close to the lights and set up their webs to opportunistically catch these wandering bugs. Since spiders are opportunistic hunters, they’re able to make this adjustment relatively easily.

Should Your Spider’s Enclosure Have A Light?

If you’re the owner of a spider, you put a lot of thought into your spider’s enclosure. Making sure that the enclosure is secure and climate controlled is a big part of good spider husbandry. However, not a lot of information is available regarding lighting a spider enclosure. Do pet spiders need light in their enclosure?

There’s a reason why lighting isn’t discussed frequently in spider enclosure guides, and that’s because supplemental lighting isn’t needed!

Spiders are more than happy to have an enclosure that’s only lit by the sun coming through the window in your room. They have no need for supplemental lighting, so it would be an unnecessary addition to their enclosure.

This is where having a large and accessorized spider enclosure comes into play. If a spider ever wants to get away from the light, they can simply go under their hide, enter their burrow, or stand behind a piece of decor. Then, when they want light, they can come back out and bask in it.