“I’m sure everyone knows that spiders make silk and have venom, but they also fly, play songs, walk on water, solve puzzles, and live everywhere, from underwater to the tallest mountain peaks on Earth,” said James O’Hanlon, author of Eight-Legged Wonders: The Surprising Lives of Spiders, which is a book about the remarkable lives of one of the most misunderstood and maligned creatures on the planet: the spider. “This is the first step in your newfound lifelong fascination with spiders.”
Spider fears, both genuine phobias and general disliking, are the most commonly reported fears worldwide. However, they are terribly misunderstood due to widespread misinformation and myths — most spiders are harmless to humans. Although some spiders, like the brown recluse and the black widow, may cause medically dangerous bites, they just like keeping to themselves and feeding on pests until they sense a human as a threat.
“Spiders really have no interest in biting people, unlike a lot of other arthropods like mosquitoes, and ticks, and mites that feed on human blood,” said Catherine Scott, an arachnologist at the University of Toronto. “The only reason a spider would bite you is if you’re crushing it, or sort of otherwise harassing it, and it feels like it’s got no other choice but to try to defend itself.”
Spiders are more than just backyard visitors or unwanted houseguests. They are essential players in natural pest control. By feeding on a variety of insects, spiders help keep insect populations in check, particularly those dangerous to plants and humans like mosquitoes, aphids, flies, wasps, roaches, and more.
In particular, cellar spiders are masters of natural pest control. Typically, they reside in basements, garages, and cellars. While you are reading this article, a cellar spider may be performing what scientists call a “dance of death,” in which it places its lanky legs on the edges of another spider’s web, tremble as if it is a trapped “snack”, and waits for the owner of that web to come eat the cellar spider. What happens to that web owner next is what makes cellar spiders the best roommates.
“The cellar spider tosses a silk web over it, wraps it up, and eats it,” stated Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice, entomologist and writer of Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Spiders. “Then, to add insult to injury, the cellar spider moves on into its victim’s web, gobbling down all the creatures that got snagged by the work of the deceased spider.”
Another spider which catches insects and other small prey with its web is one which most of us encountered — the common house spider. They are non-venomous and come in various shades of brown, tan, or gray, blending in with dusty corners.
Fascinatingly, houses are not the only places where spiders are found — they can also be found underwater and on mountains!
Although some spider species spend some time in water, the water spider is the only spider which spends its entire life underwater, living in a large air bubble during the day and hunting at night. In their pond habitats, they can be recognized by silvery air bubbles trapped in the hairs of their body.
The Himalayan jumping spider is referred to as Mount Everest’s highest living resident. These tough spiders can survive the extreme conditions on Mount Everest including cold, low oxygen, and high UV radiation. They feed on insects that get blown up the mountain slopes. In a place like Mount Everest, where food is scarce, their low metabolic rate allows them to conserve energy.
In fact, you do not have to climb Mount Everest to find impressive spiders; jumping spiders, in general, are found in a variety of habitats, from your home to the wilderness, and they amaze most people with their intelligence every day! They can visually perceive and remember their surroundings, which gives them an advantage when hunting. They are also able to solve simple problems and learn from experience. They won’t bite you unless they feel threatened by you, so when you encounter them, you can observe their strategic hunting skills from a distance!
“Spiders are a part of our daily lives, whether we know it or not, and whether we like it or not,” said Dr. Spicer Rice. “They’re doing wonderful and weird things all around us. And once you know about it, the world becomes a little more familiar to you, and a little more beautiful.”
