A lot of people who are skeptical about the possibility of intelligence in tarantulas are going to roll their eyes at this article about tarantulas and ping pong balls, but I don’t care! Studying tarantula behavior is one of my passions and I am willing to explore all possibilities about these creatures.

If you’ve been following my work on tarantulas for a little, you’ll know that I have spoken in detail about my experiences with my grammostola rosea Spidey and her “toys.” Yes, I put several things for her to play with in her tank to study how she interacts with them, and sometimes it really does look like something we would equate with “play.” One of the items that Spidey interacts with the most is her ping pong ball – and she’s not alone. Many tarantula owners have given their tarantulas ping pong balls and noted that their tarantula actually interacts with them pretty often!

Why Do Tarantulas Love Ping Pong Balls?

It’s a good question, and one that we can only draw hypothesis on since data is limited. While some tarantula owners do not believe that tarantulas “play” (and I would kind of agree with this), many can agree that providing any animal with enrichment and things to safely interact with in their enclosures is a good idea. Whether they are playing or not, the fact that tarantulas will roll their ping pong balls around, put them in their water dish or other objects (like my Spidey) or use them for other spiderly purposes deserves acknowledgement. At the very least, this keeps things interesting for them in captivity.

Another theory about tarantulas and ping pong balls is that the tarantula might think it’s an egg sac as a ping pong ball may resemble the shape and size an egg sac would be. There have been reports of female tarantulas treating ping pong balls like egg sacs and keeping it near them or becoming very possessive over it.

To make things even more weird, some tarantula owners have even noticed that their tarantulas tries to bite the ping pong ball or even attack it! If you’re interested, this is a really interesting Arachnoboards thread all about tarantulas and ping pong balls.

Anyway, we may not know exactly why some tarantulas get obsessed with ping pong balls, but it sure is cute for now! Enjoy some videos of these beautiful creatures and their toys!

And this may not be a ping pong ball, but it sure is interesting: