Some Strange, But True, Facts About Spiders
- Some male spiders simply want to be eaten
Although female black widows are notorious for cannibalizing their male partners, this is not a common occurrence. Male red widows, on the other hand, will force feed themselves to the females by placing their heads in the females’ mouths.
- Spiders can see things that we cannot
Salticids, also known as jumping spiders, can see in spectrums that humans cannot. Some have been shown to see both UVA light and UVB light.
- Some Tarantulas throw hair at predators
New-world tarantulas can fling tiny irritating hairs (known as urticating or irritating hairs) at potential predators to repel them. This is similar to a porcupine using its quills to defend itself.
- Spiders can cooperate
Although most spiders live alone, some form large communities and build large cobwebs. Colonies can have thousands of members and the spiders will work together to trap prey in their webs, and then share the harvest.
- Spiders can fish
Spiders have many clever ways to catch prey. The ogre-faced spider, for example, weaves a net between its front legs and then hangs it above the areas where insects are most likely to pass. It then uses this web to catch prey. You also have bolas spiders, which use long lines of silk that are finished with a bit of sticky glue, and then they swing these lines at nearby moths to capture them.
- Spider silk is super strong
Spider web silk is much stronger than steel pound-for-pound. Spiders will also have different types of silks that they use for different purposes. As an example, they have silk that they use to build webs, and they have silk that they use to travel around
- Some spiders have ant disguises
Over 100 species of spiders have evolved similar appearances to ants and even have the same pheromones. While most spiders do this to avoid predators, a few others do it to prey on ants.
- The life saving spider dance
Back in the 16th century, people used to do a dance called the tarantella if they were bitten by a certain wolf spider species called the “tarantula” after the Taranto region of Italy. This dance was believed to save the life of the victim.
While these facts are certainly interesting, we still don’t want to have spiders in our homes, especially not black widows or brown recluses. If you notice that you have a spider infestation, and you would like to get rid of it, or if you have any questions about spider infestations, contact us today.
