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[Glacies]

Well if the chasm spawns them, it is infinite, isn't it?

[eerr]

cats hunt down vermin terminator style, and as soon as it enters the map, will try to path through any pet impassable door forever.


well, after it kills off the other vermin first anyway

[Zeg]

Well if the chasm spawns them, it is infinite, isn't it?

Okay, I was really a bit liberal in my use of the word 'infinite'. It is infinite for just random spawning around the chasm. But I was hoping for infinite in a more tightly controled way.

I can now answer my own original posts question. It seems that cave spiders captured then re-released have a life span of about a year. The single spider I released has now gone and this time I was keeping a little closer eye on it.

[Silveron]

As long as you're researching this, is it a total lifespan from capture/release to death or just from release to death? Do the cages act like stasis pods for the vermin?

[jplur]

I think there is a finite number of vermin in the world.  I had a fort where I built a giant tree farm beside an underground river.  There were hundreds of webs in the room, but after I flooded it the webs and spiders disappeared for ever.  Digging new rooms next to the river would no longer spawn them.

On another note, has anybody tried releasing tame spiders?  It's possible that they would live longer and be safe from cats.

[Golgath]

On another note, has anybody tried releasing tame spiders?  It's possible that they would live longer and be safe from cats.

It didn't seem to work.  I had a civ where you could buy tame cave spiders, but even putting them in a sealed room they vanished eventually, though I didn't have any cats.  Not long enough to convince me that they died of old age, I think vermin just vanish from the map every so often.  You don't notice unless you already have vermin where they would not normally be, so that may be it.

[Zeg]

As long as you're researching this, is it a total lifespan from capture/release to death or just from release to death? Do the cages act like stasis pods for the vermin?

I'm fairly certain I've confirmed this now. Vermin still in thier traps (and presummably cages too) don't seem to 'age'. Each time I release a new spider out of my animal stockpile, they seem to last about the same time.

[Nilik]

I'm trying to make a silk farm myself so I'm interested to hear how well this works.

My method was to create a seperate stockpile just for cave spiders. As soon as I see a new trap appear in the "cave spider" stockpile, I forbid the spider, but not the trap. This ensures no-one will eat them before i'm ready for step 2.

Step 2 will be to tame the spiders. This won't be possible until the dungeon master shows up, but should be possible given they have the [PET_EXOTIC] tag, am I right? So once I have tame cave spiders, I just wait for dwarves to adopt them. Then i'll have non-biting non-edible non-cat-fodder cave spiders wandering around and (hopefully) spreading webs everywhere.

Step 3, harvest the webs.

Step 4,

Step 5, PROFIT

[Tormy]

On another note, has anybody tried releasing tame spiders?  It's possible that they would live longer and be safe from cats.

It didn't seem to work.  I had a civ where you could buy tame cave spiders, but even putting them in a sealed room they vanished eventually, though I didn't have any cats.  Not long enough to convince me that they died of old age, I think vermin just vanish from the map every so often.  You don't notice unless you already have vermin where they would not normally be, so that may be it.

Weird...must be a bug?

[Zeg]

I'm trying to make a silk farm myself so I'm interested to hear how well this works.

My method was to create a seperate stockpile just for cave spiders. As soon as I see a new trap appear in the "cave spider" stockpile, I forbid the spider, but not the trap. This ensures no-one will eat them before i'm ready for step 2.

Step 2 will be to tame the spiders. This won't be possible until the dungeon master shows up, but should be possible given they have the [PET_EXOTIC] tag, am I right? So once I have tame cave spiders, I just wait for dwarves to adopt them. Then i'll have non-biting non-edible non-cat-fodder cave spiders wandering around and (hopefully) spreading webs everywhere.

Step 3, harvest the webs.

Step 4,

Step 5, PROFIT

Seperate stockpile is good. I just did it by queing singluar 'catch live animal' jobs so the anouncment of the job completion would pop up every time my trapper caught something and I could zoom straight to it to forbid spiders and move everything else into a cage to free up the trap again.

I wasn't sure how well tamed spiders would work, which is why I didn't try that. As strays, or indeed as pets, I would guess that even if they do make webs (which I don't know if they do), they would do so in such high traffic areas that the dwarfs would trample them all before you had a chance to collect them.

It seems spiders are still getting into my fortress from the chasm, so they do apparently spawn repeatedly. I've been releasing one at a time into my web room and waiting for it to vanish before releasing the next, but I've still got plenty in stock. I think as far as slik farms go, its opperating well enough. I've probably got enough silk to make clothes for everyone if I wished.