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[jokuvaan]

For some odd reason it seems my cave spider full map where i  had massive clothing industry suddenly cave spiders (but not all vermins) just vanished from the face of the earth after few years of clothesmaking, i was wondering if doing engravings on bottomless pit floor affected it somehow?

No mods whatsoever.

[Derakon]

Given that I had a queen with a fully-engraved tomb that was choked completely full with cave spider webs, engraving shouldn't make a difference. I'd be inclined to blame cats, who will go nutso killing vermin if given the opportunity.

[jokuvaan]

yeah except i only had two same sex cats so no breeding, kind strange

[Derakon]

Two cats can kill a lot of vermin on their own.

I've given up on cats entirely. The constant running off of dwarves to dump remains in the refuse stockpile, and the clouds of miasma when they're too slow, aren't worth the worsened bad thoughts from being accosted by vermin.

[jokuvaan]

Yeah but i'm 100% certain it aint cats, since if it was i'd still see SOME cave spiders, and they generally dont wander to area they used to spawn that often, since theyre usually busy at my gazillion food stockpiles

[Footkerchief]

I believe regional population counts are stored for vermin (e.g. cave spiders) as well as other creatures.  Like other creatures, they don't reproduce and when a region runs out of creatures, it's out forever.  If the region ran out of cave spiders, it would probably quickly go straight from normal amounts of them to absolutely none.

Vermin population counts are usually very high, though, so I don't know if that's a plausible explanation.

[smjjames]

Speaking of cave spiders, I have a map with a chasm where there were no cave spiders from the start, in fact, no cave spider webs to indicate their presence. I suspect the fact that most of the chasm (95%) is exposed to the light is a factor.

[Jimmy]

As a workaround, try setting up a custom reaction at your smelter to create cave spiders from air, set it on repeat and release them after a year of production. See if the new ones make more silk.

[Starver]

I believe regional population counts are stored for vermin (e.g. cave spiders) as well as other creatures.  Like other creatures, they don't reproduce and when a region runs out of creatures, it's out forever.

I was about to ask a silly question about trapped (and even tamed) vermin being viable population sustainers, before I realised you included "don't reproduce".  And then I was going to ask an equally silly question about whetehr trapping some in advance could be a precautionary measure.  Only, I was thinking that you could do so before allowing other vermin to perish completely, then get rid of your cats (seeing as you couldn't stop vermin from entering/leaving any cat-holding/cat-proof areas, while they got back onto the job of spinning webs for you) and be all happy and jolly about things, at least until the next Urist McDickWittington arrives witht he next cowd of immigrants, knotted handkerchief on stick and pet cat following on behind, expectantly awaiting elevation to mayor while your precious last few spiders succumb to the prowling puss.

So... given this isn't possible, maybe the lesson is to identify the spider-biome areas straight away (underground only?) and cat-proof those areas.  Put your stores in the cat-accessible areas, and do something (not sure what) to ensure that any Capture Small Animal tasks don't encage the spiders (if you're running low on them) even while you attempt to do your bit against the rats, roaches, etc...

But I don't have enough experience with efficiently handling vermin, so am far from an expert and have surely abstracted the mechanisms beyond 'reality'.

[Jimmy]

Alternate solution:

Thermonuclear catsplosion.

[GenericOverusedName]

Vermin will "repopulate" an area every season (or was it year?). If for some reason they don't have the appropriate biome (in the case of cave spiders, dark subterranean?), then they won't respawn. It's the same type of process that refills fish populations after you've overfished an area.

[Quietust]

Vermin will "repopulate" an area every season (or was it year?). If for some reason they don't have the appropriate biome (in the case of cave spiders, dark subterranean?), then they won't respawn. It's the same type of process that refills fish populations after you've overfished an area.

From what I'm observing with my own 13-year old fort, vermin population is tracked at 2 levels - one for the amount currently in the area during the season, and another for the total that will ever be available. When I started, my fisherdwarves were catching numerous turtles from the swamps (and would eventually be told that there was nothing to catch), but then they could only find char, steelhead trout, and mussels from the river, then only steelhead trout for a year or so, and now they haven't caught a single fish for nearly 3 seasons.