How Long Do Spiders Live?

Short answer

• Most spiders live one to two years. That is the useful starting point for the familiar spiders found in houses and gardens, and it is the figure that most readers are asking about when they search this question. Within that range, females usually live longer than males, often by a wide margin. The exceptions are large and important. Female tarantulas commonly live 15 to 25 years, and some reach 30 years in captivity. Female trapdoor spiders can live longer still. The longest lived spider on record was a female Australian trapdoor spider, known to researchers as Number 16, who lived about 43 years in the same burrow in Western Australia. So there is no single spider lifespan. A small garden spider that hatches in spring may complete its whole life in one season. A female tarantula kept with steady food, stable humidity, and no predators may still be alive when a child who first saw her starts college. The difference comes down to species, sex, growth speed, temperature, food, water, and above all whether the spider survives predators and parasites long enough to reach its potential age. In the wild, very few spiders die of old age. Most are eaten, parasitized, starved, frozen, or dried out first.

Why One Number Cannot Answer This Question

Spiders are not one animal with one lifespan. There are more than 40,000 described spider species, and Terminix notes that their breeding habits and life cycles vary a great deal. A lifespan figure is therefore always a range for a species, a sex, and a setting, not a fixed birthday for every spider.

Published lifespans also describe potential more often than they describe what usually happens. A table can say that a species lives two years, but that usually means that a female who survives to adulthood in reasonable conditions can reach about two years. It does not mean that most spiderlings born that year will live two years. Most will not. Egg sacs can hold dozens to thousands of eggs, depending on the species, and mortality among spiderlings is very high. Predators, parasites, weather, and lack of food remove most of them before maturity.

Lifespan at a Glance

The table below gives typical lifespans for females in reasonable conditions, unless a male figure is stated. These are ranges, not promises, and they are drawn from the sources listed at the end of this article. Detail and qualifications follow in the sections below.

Spider type	Typical lifespan	Main pattern
Common house spider	About 1 to 2 years; University of Arkansas notes individuals live a year or more	Females outlive males; indoor life often extends the range
Cellar spider	About 1 to 2 years, with long quiet periods in undisturbed places	Long fasting tolerance; death usually comes from drying out, not hunger
Garden orb weaver (annual species)	About 1 year	Dies at the first hard frost in much of its range; eggs overwinter
Wolf spider	About 1 to 3 years	Females overwinter and breed the following season; males usually die after mating season
Jumping spider	About 1 year; some females survive a second season indoors	Short adult life after maturity, especially for males
Black widow (female)	About 1 to 3 years	Males rarely survive past their first mating season
Brown recluse	About 2 to 4 years	Slow to mature and long lived for a true spider
Giant house spider	About 2 to 6 years	Unusually long lived for a true spider
Tarantula (female)	About 15 to 25 years; some species to 30 years in captivity	Males typically 3 to 6 years in total, and often under a year after maturity
Trapdoor spider (female)	About 5 to 20 years; long-lived species 15 to 20 years; record 43 years	Sedentary burrow life; females stay in one burrow for life
Funnel-web spider (female)	Up to about 20 years reported for females in a burrow	Slow growing mygalomorph; males much shorter lived

Common House Spiders: About One to Two Years

The spiders most people meet indoors are small true spiders, not tarantulas. For them, one to two years is the honest general answer. Terminix puts the average house spider lifespan at about one to two years, with food, temperature, and predators shaping the result. The University of Arkansas Arthropod Museum, describing the common house spider, states that individuals live a year or more and that adults are found in all seasons.

Within the house spider group, there is real variation. The common house spider, the cellar spider, and the sac spider are the usual indoor residents named by Terminix. Cellar spiders are famous for sitting quietly for long periods in undisturbed corners and basements, dropping their activity to near zero when prey is scarce. That patience helps them survive gaps in food, but it does not make them immortal. Without moisture, or after a long dry spell, they fail.

The giant house spider is the clear exception among house spiders, and it deserves its own mention because readers often confuse it with the ordinary house spider. Spider Identifications gives the giant house spider a typical lifespan of 2 to 6 years, unusually long for a true spider. Its size and its habit of living undisturbed in basements, garages, and outbuildings help explain the longer range. This article gives only the lifespan point here. Identification, size, and behavior of the giant house spider belong to its own article and are not repeated here.

Garden and Hunting Spiders: Mostly One Season to Three Years

Garden spiders, wolf spiders, and jumping spiders show how different life strategies produce different lifespans even among spiders of similar size.

Many garden orb weavers are annual. The yellow garden spider lives about one year in most of its range and dies at the first hard frost, while its eggs overwinter and hatch the next season. The cross orb weaver is similar, at about 1 to 1.5 years, overwintering as eggs rather than as an adult. For these species, the adult spider a reader sees in late summer is near the end of its life by design. It has one season to grow, build, mate, and lay eggs. Death after egg laying in these species is not caused by egg laying itself. It is caused by the season ending at the same time as the spider’s natural year ends.

Wolf spiders live longer, at about 1 to 3 years. Females overwinter and breed the following season, and they carry the egg sac and later the spiderlings, which improves the young spiders’ chances. Males generally mature in their first year and die after the mating season. A wolf spider seen wandering in autumn is therefore often a mature male near the end of his life, not a spider with years ahead of him.

Jumping spiders are shorter lived again, at about one year, although some females survive a second season indoors. The bold jumping spider is the usual example. Jumping spiders are active hunters with excellent vision for a spider, but their adult life after maturity is short, especially for males. Their lifespan is a reminder that hunting skill does not translate into long life. Exposure during hunting, and the energy cost of an active life, work against longevity.

Tarantulas: The Long Lived Exception

Tarantulas change the scale completely. Female tarantulas commonly live 15 to 25 years, and several species are reported at 25 to 30 years in captivity. That is not a rounding error. It is a different life history.

The key is slow growth and continued molting. Female tarantulas keep molting throughout adult life, which lets them regenerate lost legs and replace worn cuticle year after year. Males do not. Once a male tarantula takes his maturity molt, he stops growing permanently and in most species never molts again. From that point, his body is fixed and cannot be repaired. Spider Identifications puts the male pattern plainly: a male tarantula matures at 3 to 6 years and usually dies within a year of that final molt. For the Chilean rose hair tarantula, the figures given are 15 to 20 years for females and 4 to 6 years at most for males. For the Goliath birdeater, the figures are 15 to 25 years for females and 3 to 6 years for males. A review of tarantula aging research summarized in 2010 makes the same point in sharper form: once they reach sexual maturity, males have a life expectancy reduced to 1 to 2 years, while females can still live for 20 years.

This section covers lifespan only. Tarantula size, the record for the largest spider, and tarantula behavior belong to other articles and are not repeated here beyond the lifespan figures needed for comparison.

Trapdoor Spiders and Other Mygalomorphs: Slow, Sedentary, and Very Long Lived

Tarantulas are mygalomorphs, an ancient group of spiders that also includes trapdoor spiders and funnel-web spiders. Mygalomorphs share the traits that produce long life: slow growth, slow metabolism, sedentary habits, and, for females, molting throughout adult life.

Trapdoor spiders live in burrows lined with silk and topped with a camouflaged lid. Females stay in the same burrow for their whole adult life, enlarging it as they molt and grow, and ambushing prey from behind the lid. That sedentary life removes much of the risk that kills wandering spiders. A female trapdoor spider does not cross open ground looking for mates. Males come to her, and males pay the price for wandering.

The record for this group, and for all spiders, is Number 16. She was a female Gaius villosus trapdoor spider monitored in her burrow at North Bungulla Reserve in Western Australia from 1974 until 2016. Live Science, reporting the study published in Pacific Conservation Biology, states that she was pronounced deceased at 43 years old, making her the longest lived spider to date and unseating the previous record holder, a 28 year old tarantula that had lived and died in captivity. She did not die of old age. Researchers found her burrow lid pierced, likely by a parasitoid wasp, and concluded that she had probably been attacked and parasitized. Even the longest lived spider on record was killed by a predator, not by age.

Black Widows and Brown Recluses: Lifespan Only

Two spiders that readers often ask about by name deserve brief lifespan entries, without repeating the identification, bite, or safety coverage that belongs to their own articles.

The southern black widow female lives about 1 to 3 years, and males rarely survive past their first mating season. Spider Identifications notes that a female can produce several egg sacs from a single mating during that time. Warm indoor conditions shorten the cycle for both sexes, because warmth speeds maturation.

The brown recluse lives longer than many older sources state. Older sources often gave one to two years. Spider Identifications, citing laboratory colonies and long running field studies, gives two to four years as common, occasionally more, and notes that the spider is slow to mature. That longer figure also helps explain why an established indoor population can persist for years. The spider tolerates long periods without food or water, which is covered in the fasting section below.

These two entries are deliberately short. This article is about how long spiders live. How to identify these spiders, where they live, and what to do about a bite are separate questions, and they belong to separate articles. Readers who need that information should not rely on a lifespan article for it.

Why Females Live So Much Longer Than Males

Sex is the single largest pattern in spider longevity, larger than diet or habitat for many species. The reason is structural, and it starts at the maturity molt.

A mature male, in most species, stops molting. He cannot grow, cannot replace a worn exoskeleton, and cannot regenerate a lost leg. His body is finished, and his remaining life is a countdown. Several pressures then act on him at once. He leaves cover and wanders in search of females, which exposes him to birds, wasps, lizards, and other spiders. Many wandering males eat little or nothing during the mating season and simply run down their reserves. He cannot repair damage, because there is no next molt. And in widows and some orb weavers, he is sometimes eaten by the female, although Spider Identifications notes that sexual cannibalism accounts for far fewer male deaths than exhaustion and predation do.

Females face none of this in the same form. A female usually stays in a defended retreat or burrow, keeps feeding, and in mygalomorphs keeps molting. She therefore keeps the ability to repair and renew herself. She also spreads reproduction across time. A long lived female can lay egg sacs in more than one season, while a male gets one mating season, and often only part of one.

The male pattern also explains a common autumn observation. Mature males that appear indoors in September and October are often near the end of their lives. They are not a new invasion with years ahead of them. They are wandering males in their final season, looking for females. Their presence is seasonal, and their remaining lifespan is measured in weeks or months, not years.

From Egg to Adult: Where the Years Go

A spider’s lifespan includes stages that look nothing like the adult. Terminix describes three phases: egg, spiderling, and adult. The egg phase takes from about two weeks to several months, depending on the species and temperature. Some eggs overwinter and hatch in spring. Spiderlings hatch in about two to three weeks in many species, look like tiny versions of adults, and then molt several times over weeks to months before maturity.

Molting is the engine of spider growth, and it is also a risk. A spider is soft and defenseless just after shedding its old exoskeleton, and a failed molt can kill it. In captivity, a failed molt is a leading cause of death, usually linked to humidity that is too low, handling during pre-molt, or live prey left in the enclosure to chew on a soft animal. In the wild, the same vulnerability applies, with predators added.

Time to maturity varies enormously. A small true spider may mature in months. A female tarantula may take years. A male trapdoor spider reaches sexual maturity at about 5 years old, according to the Live Science report on Number 16, and then leaves his burrow to find a mate, sealing the entrance behind him. That long childhood is part of why mygalomorph lifespans are so long. Much of the total lifespan is spent growing slowly, not as a breeding adult.

Wild Versus Captivity: Why Pet Spiders Live Longer

Kept spiders routinely outlive wild ones, sometimes by years, because captivity removes the two things that kill most wild spiders: predators and starvation. A pet tarantula with steady food, stable humidity, and no wasps has a realistic chance of reaching the upper end of its published range. A wild tarantula of the same species rarely does.

Captivity has its own risks, and they cluster around molting, feeding, and temperature. Overfeeding and high temperatures shorten a tarantula’s life, according to Spider Identifications. Pushing a juvenile to molt as often as possible brings it to adult size in a few years rather than many, and a mature female that got there quickly does not gain back the time. Slow, cool, moderately fed animals tend to live longest. That finding cuts against the instinct to feed a pet as much as it will eat. For a long lived spider, slower growth is longer life.

What Actually Determines How Long a Spider Lives

Beyond species and sex, five factors do most of the work. They interact, so no single factor should be read in isolation.

First, family and growth speed. Mygalomorphs are slow growing, slow metabolizing, and long lived. True spiders of the same size rarely come close. Slow growth means a longer time to maturity and, for females that keep molting, a longer adult life. Fast growth means an early peak and an early end.

Second, temperature and season. Warmth speeds up metabolism, growth, and molting, so a spider in a heated house matures faster and dies sooner than the same species outdoors in a cooler place. Cold stretches the schedule. Many species overwinter as eggs or juveniles rather than as adults, which is a way of pausing the clock through winter. Frost is a hard limit for annual species. A spider that cannot survive frost must finish its life before frost, or leave eggs that can.

Third, food supply. Prey availability sets molting intervals, egg production, and body condition. A well fed spider matures sooner. A starved spider stalls, sometimes for a whole season, which can paradoxically extend its total lifespan because it spends longer as a juvenile. Starvation rarely kills a spider quickly, as the next section explains, but chronic lack of food reduces egg numbers and weakens the spider for molting and for surviving winter.

Fourth, predators and parasites. In the wild, almost no spider dies of old age. Spider wasps, birds, ants, mantises, lizards, and other spiders take the overwhelming majority. Parasitoid wasp larvae kill many juveniles outright, and they killed even Number 16 after 43 years. A spider’s lifespan in the wild is therefore best understood as how long it avoids being killed, not how long its body could theoretically last.

Fifth, water and humidity. Spiders tolerate hunger far better than thirst. A typical house spider can go one to two months without a meal, and large tarantulas have survived well over a year of voluntary fasting in captivity, particularly before a molt. Their metabolic rate is low, they do not maintain a body temperature, and the midgut gland in the abdomen acts as a substantial food store. Water is the real limit. Many species will not last more than a week or two in dry air with no access to moisture. Web builders get much of their water from prey and from condensation on silk, and hunting spiders drink from dew, damp soil, or a water dish. A spider trapped in a dry bath or a dry room often dies of dehydration, not hunger.

How Long Can Spiders Live Without Food or Water?

This is one of the most searched related questions, and the answer surprises most readers. Spiders are far better at fasting than humans expect.

A typical house spider can survive one to two months without a meal. Large tarantulas have survived well over a year of voluntary fasting in captivity, especially in the run-up to a molt. The reasons are physiological. Spiders have a low metabolic rate, they do not spend energy maintaining a constant body temperature, and they store reserves in the midgut gland. When food is absent, a spider becomes less active and reduces web maintenance to conserve energy. An orb weaver will often eat its own web before rebuilding, recycling the protein in the silk.

Water is different. Dehydration kills spiders far faster than hunger. Many species will not last more than a week or two in dry air with no access to moisture. That is why a spider found dead in a bath has usually died of dehydration and inability to climb out, not of starvation. It is also why cellar spiders can survive months in an unheated basement with almost no prey, by dropping activity to near zero, but still need some moisture from the air, from prey, or from condensation.

Do Spiders Die After Laying Eggs?

Many do, but not for the reason readers often assume. Laying eggs does not itself kill a spider in most species. What kills many annual females is timing. A female that lays late in the season is usually at the end of her natural year, and she dies with the first hard frosts. The eggs survive winter. She does not need to.

Long lived species behave differently. Tarantulas and trapdoor spiders lay repeatedly across many years. A female tarantula can produce egg sacs in successive breeding seasons, and a female trapdoor spider can breed from the same burrow for decades. For these species, egg laying is a recurring event in a long life, not a final act.

There is a middle group. Females that live two to four years, such as brown recluses and black widows, can produce several egg sacs during their lives. A black widow female can produce several sacs from a single mating, according to Spider Identifications. Death after the last sac in these species is again usually a matter of age, season, predation, or starvation, not a direct consequence of laying.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do spiders live on average? Most spiders live one to two years. That average covers the familiar house and garden species. It does not cover female tarantulas and trapdoor spiders, which live 15 to 25 years or more, or the record trapdoor spider at 43 years.

How long do house spiders live? About one to two years. The University of Arkansas notes that common house spider individuals live a year or more, and adults are found in all seasons. Indoor spiders often live longer than outdoor spiders of the same species, because they avoid frost and many predators, but dry indoor air and disturbance work against them.

How long do tarantulas live? Female tarantulas commonly live 15 to 25 years, and some species reach 25 to 30 years in captivity. Males live much less: they mature at 3 to 6 years and usually die within a year of that final molt, giving a total lifespan of about 3 to 6 years for many species.

How long do wolf spiders live? About 1 to 3 years. Females live longest, overwintering and breeding the following season. Males generally mature in their first year and die after the mating season.

How long do black widows live? Female black widows live about 1 to 3 years. Males rarely survive past their first mating season, often living only a few months as adults. Warm indoor conditions shorten the cycle for both sexes.

How long do brown recluses live? About 2 to 4 years, commonly, with some individuals living longer. Brown recluses are slow to mature and long lived for a true spider, which helps explain why established indoor populations can persist for years.

Why do female spiders live longer than males? Because males stop molting at maturity, leave cover to wander for mates, often stop feeding, cannot repair injuries, and face predators throughout their wandering. Females stay in a defended retreat or burrow, keep feeding, and in mygalomorphs keep molting and regenerating for years or decades.

Do spiders live longer in captivity? Usually yes. Captivity removes predators and starvation, the two main killers in the wild, so kept spiders can reach the upper end of their range. Captivity also brings risks around molting, humidity, overfeeding, and temperature, and pushing a juvenile to grow fast shortens its total life.

How long can spiders live without food? A typical house spider can go one to two months without a meal. Large tarantulas have fasted for well over a year in captivity, especially before a molt. Water is the stricter limit: many species will not last more than a week or two in dry air with no moisture.

Do spiders die after laying eggs? Annual spiders usually die after their egg laying season, because winter ends their year, not because laying itself kills them. Long lived spiders such as tarantulas and trapdoor spiders lay repeatedly across many years and do not die after a single egg laying.

What is the longest a spider has ever lived? About 43 years. A female Gaius villosus trapdoor spider, known as Number 16, was monitored in the same burrow in Western Australia from 1974 until 2016. She was killed by a parasitoid wasp, not by old age, and she beat the previous record of a 28 year old tarantula in captivity.

Sources & references

• Spider Identifications, "How Long Do Spiders Live? Lifespan by Species," https://spideridentifications.com/spider-facts/how-long-do-spiders-live (most spiders live one to two years; females almost always live longer than males; species table including Carolina wolf spider 1 to 3 years, yellow garden spider about 1 year, cross orb weaver 1 to 1.5 years, giant house spider 2 to 6 years, bold jumping spider about 1 year, brown recluse 2 to 4 years, southern black widow 1 to 3 years, hobo spider 1 to 2 years, Brazilian wandering spider 1 to 2 years, Chilean rose hair tarantula 15 to 20 years female and 4 to 6 years male, Goliath birdeater 15 to 25 years female and 3 to 6 years male, ravine trapdoor spider 15 to 20 years; male stops molting at maturity, leaves cover, stops feeding, cannot repair damage; female mygalomorphs keep molting; Sydney funnel-web female over 20 years in a burrow; temperature, food, predators and parasites as main factors; house spider fasting one to two months, large tarantulas over a year, water limit one to two weeks in dry air; Number 16 at 43 years, killed by a parasitic wasp; male tarantula matures at 3 to 6 years and usually dies within a year of the final molt; Mexican red knee and Arizona blond tarantulas reported at 25 to 30; captivity molting risks, overfeeding and high temperatures shortening life; cellar spiders surviving months with almost no prey)
• Terminix, "Spider Life Cycle Explained: Lifespan, Growth & Development," https://www.terminix.com/spiders/life-cycle/ (more than 40,000 spider species; three phases egg, spiderling, adult; spiders live from a few months to several years, some to 20 years in captivity; environmental conditions, food availability, and predators significantly influence life expectancy; egg sacs from one to thousands of eggs, hatching from two weeks to several months; spiderlings hatch in two to three weeks and molt several times; most spiders including black widows, brown recluses, wolf spiders, and jumping spiders live about two years; tarantulas up to 20 years in captivity; females tend to live longer than males; average house spider lifespan about one to two years; common indoor spiders include house spider, cellar spider, wolf spider, and sac spider)
• Live Science, "Say Goodbye to the World's Oldest Spider, Dead at 43," https://www.livescience.com/62452-worlds-oldest-spider-dies.html (Number 16, female Gaius villosus trapdoor spider, first spotted as a spiderling in 1974 at North Bungulla Reserve, Australia, through 2016; pronounced deceased at 43 years old, longest lived spider to date, unseating a 28 year old tarantula in captivity; study published in Pacific Conservation Biology; trapdoor spiders build individual burrows lined with silk and topped with lids, enlarge burrows as they molt, reinforce openings with mud plugs when brooding; males reach sexual maturity at about 5 years old, leave burrows to find mates and seal entrances behind them; females stay in their burrows for life and repair rather than move; burrow lid pierced, likely by a parasitoid wasp, spider likely attacked and parasitized)
• University of Arkansas Arthropod Museum, "Common House Spider," https://arthropod.uark.edu/common-house-spider/ (individuals live a year or more; adults found in all seasons; egg sacs from late spring to late summer, each with 100 to 600 or more eggs; spiderlings disperse by ballooning on silken threads)
• Fight Aging summary of tarantula aging research, "Large Gender Differences in Spider Longevity," https://www.fightaging.org/?p=7065 (summarizing a peer reviewed study: once reaching sexual maturity, males have a life expectancy reduced to 1 to 2 years, while females can still live for 20 years, despite females continuing to grow and molt; female spiders producing less mitochondrial superoxide and better protected against oxidative attack than males at adulthood)
• Family Handyman, "Why Do Spiders Keep Coming Back in the House," https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/what-attracts-spiders-in-house/ (opened page text: most common spider species live less than a year, some for several years, tarantulas over 20 years; males typically die soon after they mate, females often become prey before reaching old age)
• Discover Magazine, "11 Unusual Facts About the Creepy Spider," https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/11-unusual-facts-about-the-creepy-spider-some-have-no-eyes-at-all (opened page text: most spiders live about a year or two, predators such as wasps prevent many from reaching that long; female tarantulas can live more than 30 years in captivity)