How Long Do Spiders Live? From One Season to Decades

How long do most spiders live?

Spiders fall into two broad groups with very different life histories. The great majority are araneomorphs, the “modern” spiders that include orb weavers, house spiders, wolf spiders and jumping spiders. Most of these live one to two years and stop molting once they become adults.

The other group, the mygalomorphs, includes tarantulas, trapdoor spiders and funnel-web spiders. They are usually heavier, live in burrows or silk retreats, grow slowly and keep molting even as adults. Females of many mygalomorphs live for decades.

Most figures are approximate. For many small species, lifespans are known mainly from field observations or captive animals, and they can differ between climates and seasons.

Short lives: garden and wandering spiders

Many common outdoor spiders in Europe and North America live for just one year. The European garden spider is typical: spiderlings hatch in spring, grow through summer, mate in late summer and autumn, and the females lay eggs in a silk cocoon before dying with the first hard frosts. The eggs survive the winter and the cycle starts again.

Wolf spiders often live a little longer, around one to two years, and large species such as the Carolina wolf spider may live longer still, with females surviving to care for their egg sacs and young. Jumping spiders typically live about a year.

How long do house spiders live?

Spiders that live in buildings are protected from frost, many predators and extreme weather, and several of them live longer than their outdoor relatives. The giant house spider usually lives two to three years, and lifespans of up to six years have been observed. Females can sit in the same web in a quiet corner for years. Long-legged cellar spiders, which hang from ceilings in houses worldwide, live around two to three years.

House spider males follow a different path. Once mature, they leave their webs in late summer and fall to look for females, and most die within weeks or months, which is part of the story told in Why do spiders come indoors in the fall?.

How long do tarantulas live?

Tarantulas are the spiders best known for long lives. Females of many species live 15 to 25 years or more, and figures of around 30 years have been reported for some kept in captivity. They grow slowly, take several years to mature, and keep molting throughout life, which lets them repair damage and even replace lost legs.

The Goliath birdeater of northern South America, the heaviest spider in the world, is a good example: females mature at three to six years and typically live 15 to 25 years. Males have much shorter lives, around three to six years in total, and usually die soon after reaching maturity. The photo above shows another long-lived species, the Mexican red-kneed tarantula.

What is the oldest spider ever recorded?

The record belongs to a female trapdoor spider (Gaius villosus) known as Number 16, which lived in North Bungulla Reserve near Tammin, Western Australia. The Australian arachnologist Barbara York Main began studying the trapdoor spiders there in 1974, marking each burrow and returning year after year. Number 16 appears to have hatched in 1974 and spent her whole life in the same burrow, catching insects that walked over her silk-lined trapdoor.

She was still alive at a survey in 2016, but later that year researcher Leanda Mason found her burrow broken open, most likely by a parasitic spider wasp. Based on the strong burrow loyalty of females of this species, the researchers concluded with high confidence that Number 16 was about 43 years old. The findings were published in 2018, and she replaced the previous record holder, a 28-year-old tarantula.

Why do some spiders live so long and others so briefly?

Several factors shape a spider’s lifespan:

• Lifestyle. Burrow-dwelling mygalomorphs move little, use energy slowly and are well protected, which favors long lives. Active hunters and web builders in exposed places face more danger.
• Molting. Spiders that keep molting as adults can repair injuries; those that stop molting at maturity cannot.
• Climate. In cold regions many species complete their life cycle in one year to fit the seasons, while burrows and buildings give protection from frost.
• Sex. Males of most species die soon after they mature and mate, while females live longer to produce and often guard eggs.

The result is a huge range: from a single season for many garden spiders to more than four decades for a trapdoor spider in the Australian bush.