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[Nagidal]

I gather that the giant cave spiders are both feared for their attack and loved for their silk. I have read reports who mention keeping GCSs and safely collecting their webs. How exactly does one do this?

What I imagine is a room where you trap a GCS, one wall is actually fortifications, behind the fortification the GCS sees a bait (e.g. poultry or dogs, etc.), shoots webs at it, then a bridge raises behind the fortifications, GCS no longer sees the bait, dwarf comes in and collects the webs. Is that how it works? isn't there an easier way?

[wierd]

Search the forum for "silk farm".

Caveats:

Tame GCS do not make good silk farm animals. They need to be wild.
The wild GCS needs to be able to see a target, and the target needs to be in range of the silk spray attack. A non grazing animal on a rope works well.
The GCS needs to be concealed when dwarves go in to get the silk, or they will become stressed when the slider goes bananas at them. Raising bridges work well, because they cannot be destroyed.

I am a fan of what I call a " peepshow booth".

basically, you cage the GCS, then build the cage on a 1x1 tile surrounded by fortifications. the floor inside is an up ramp, allowing dwarves to get in and out to perform cage installation.

around this "booth", raising bridges are installed as shutters.

th cage is linked to a lever to remotely release the GCS.

the top of the booth is then sealed with a floor tile, assuringg escape is impossible.

throw the cage release lever, freeing the GCS from the cage.

throw the peepshow lever, opening the shutters. the trapped GCS can now see out, and spray webs.

when you have webs to gather, close the shutters, and pick the webs.
rinse, repeat.

works good for caged FBs with special syndrome inducing emissions as well. Put those on the surface.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

GCSs are also deadly because webbed units can't defend themselves, no matter how good armors they are in.
Maybe you can try weaponizing them, if you can safely recollect them(how, I do not know).

[wierd]

wild gcs will spray invaders. just put the peepshow booth outside so it becomes a pillbox.

[Nagidal]

Thank you for describing the efficient way to build such a utility room. I have also read the Silk Farm article on the wiki. It seems that the captured GCS does not need to be fed, right? It will not die of hunger as far as I understand it.

[wierd]

The only animals that need to eat are grazers. (herbivores)

GCS does not eat grass. It does not eat anything at all.  It just likes to kill things.

[Nagidal]

Well, the raws say it is carnivorous, so I thought they may require food just like tame jaguars do, iirc. Anyway, I will not try to feed the GCS anything.

[PatrikLundell]

Tame jaguars do not need food either. However, training animals involves the trainer giving the trainee something to eat (and they readily give vegetables to carnivores and meat to herbivores, without consequences). I think pets are occasionally given food as well, but it's not required.

Also, in contrast to what's been said above, a tame GCS works well in a silk farm, but you need suitable bait. I use undead, which have the advantage of working as bait regardless of whether the GCS is tame or has reverted to wild.
Another consideration with a wild GCS is that a wild GCS in your silk farm is treated as "free" which in turn means it's treated as a creature group of the cavern it originally came from, thus filling a critter visiting group slot for that cavern until it's caged, killed, or (re)trained. If I understand it correctly, there is a single visitor group slot per cavern (and the surface), unless the biome somewhere is savage, in which case two groups can appear simultaneously (and FBs do not count as groups, nor do invaders, caravans, or visitors).

[Nagidal]

If FBs, invaders, caravans, or visitors don't count as the GCS type visitor, who would the GCS block from appearing then? More groups of GCS? No, thank you, I think we'll do just fine with one free-running group of GCS.

[PatrikLundell]

Other cavern critters from that cavern. GCS' come in "groups" of 1, but other cavern 1 critters are giant cave swallows, giant bats, draltha, troglodytes, giant cave crocs, and trolls (there are others as well). Having critters captive but "free" is a kind of exploit that can be used to allow unimpeded access to a cavern. In a savage biome there's still the possibility of a second group (which I assume can be treated similarly), and FBs can come at any time, so you're never safe until you've bricked up the complete edge.

[Nagidal]

I think I still don't understand the visitor groups and cavern occupancy mechanics. It is strange. I did not see the GCS yet, I only see its webs and dead cave swallows. I saw a Troll roaming the caverns, too. Somebody must have killed the swallows, I assumed it was the GCS and somehow the Troll must have been allowed to visit. Or did the Troll visit only after the GCS left the caverns? Who killed the swallows?

[PatrikLundell]

What did you see? Cave swallows or Giant Cave Swallows? The latter are "vermin", and thus not real creatures. Also, your uncertainty means it's reasonable to ask whether the webs you see are Cave Spider webs or GIANT Cave Spider webs. The former are created by "vermin" creatures that are common in the two upper caverns, while the latter are created by the feared/loved creature.
Cave Swallows are often found in Cave Spider webs, presumably killed by the web creators. It can also be noted that cave spider webs are just as good for clothing as (and mood satisfaction) as Giant Cave Spider webs, only less valuable.

The creature group mechanics are the same on the surface as in the caverns. This means that a group (for some creatures the size is always 1) appears on the edge of the map, they move around for a while, and then leave via an edge. Shortly afterwards a new group of creatures (of the same or another kind) is spawned by the edge (again, the same or a different one), they move around for a while, and then leave. Your troll is a "group" of one, so if your embark is not (partially) in a savage biome you shouldn't get another "group" in that area (cavern in this case, but the surface logic is the same) at the same time.
Finding dead bodies of non vermin creatures means they have either been killed by some other creature in the cavern, or they have fallen while climbing and died from the fall. In the first case the killer may or may not have moved on. Note that all of this has gone on throughout the existence of your fortress, regardless of whether you've breached the cavern or not.
FBs never leave, but tend to (try to) kill everything entering that cavern. Occasionally a cavern critter from a "group" manage to kill off an FB (and usually leave the cavern), leading to the bodies of its victims as well as itself littering the floor of the cavern.
"Groups" of creatures can get stuck, typically in trees, in water, or just stay motionless when one of its party members has been caught by the player. These groups are called "campers", and block the spawning on new groups because the refuse to move out.

Ah, I see the lecture time is out. Time for a break!

[steel jackal]

i would like to make a note that in the current version of DF there is a bug where hostile cavern creatures will not attack your dwarves, and so the GCS will not spray web at your dwarves.

ive heard others say that if you tame the GCS and then put an invader in front of it, it will attack the invader with its silk, however i have not had the opportunity to try this myself

[SebasMarolo]

If you guys don't mind me asking, what would be the best way to trap a GCS? wooden door surrounded by a shitton of cage traps?

And what if I want to tame it (I have easy access to tower zombies) to have other cave critters spawn? Should I put it in a good chain so if it goes back to wild it can't web the trainer, or can it web even when chained?

[Fleeting Frames]

For 2. http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Silk_farming#Simple_silk_farm

For 1, maybe? I've had wooden door+cage trap right in the middle of caverns trap a croc before, but I've also built tunnels to connect cavern places by tunnels with bait and cage traps at the crossroad.