Friday Fun Facts About Spiders

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Spiders have been in the local news lately. It is said that you are never more than six feet away from a spider at anytime in your life. Most are harmless and do a good job of getting rid of a lot of bothersome insects.

Spiders are arthropods that put them in the same family as shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. They have an outer skeleton and there are over a million species, they do very well in dry climates and environments, and make up more than 80% of all living animal species.

If spiders were the size of the average house cat humans would be extinct.

Here are a few facts about spider you might not have known.

Spider Facts

• The Bagheera Kiplingi is the only vegetarian species of spider. All the rest are ruthless predators.
•  Why are there so many spiders? Because females can lay as many as 3,000 eggs.
• If you are among the 10 percent of men and 50 percent of women that have a true fear of all spiders you suffer from Arachnophobia. The severity of this fear can vary from person to person.
• Scientists have tried to recreate the tinsel strength of the silk spiders produce without success. It is considered the world’s strongest material.
• While the Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders are indeed poisonous, the most poisonous of all spiders is the Brazilian Wandering or Banana Spider.
• As you might imagine, spiders are near sighted. They don’t really need to see much beyond their webs.
• When spiders make new webs they roll the old ones up into a ball. Some species will extract juices from their bodies to liquefy the web so they can eat it. Spiders can’t ingest solid food. Those same juices liquefy their prey.
• Spiders must continually rebuild their webs because the sticky surface attracts dust and other airborne particles. So don’t feel too bad if you tear down a spider’s web, you are probably doing them a favor.
• Why don’t spiders stick to their webs? Because only the circular strands of the web are sticky. The straight strands that support the web are not and the spider walks the tight rope on those to reach its prey.
• Due to their external skeleton spiders don’t have leg muscles. How do they move? They use the principle of hydraulic power much like a backhoe.
• Many spiders move fast but there are always four legs on the surface and four off when it’s traveling.

Some Final Thoughts

Most of us don’t have much use for spiders. Be thankful they are around because is not we’d be up to our ears in insects of all kinds.

So next time you see that web you might want to leave it there. Spiders know where a source of food should be. They are much cheaper than bug spray.

You can brush them away when company comes.

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