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Can you please tell me fun facts about spiders?

AuroraBorealis said:
How so?
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Where I used to live we had an open stairs, and a big hairy spider was on the stairs. My Mum looked at it and it looked at her, and it was as if it was saying "Watch this!" and it jumped on her! My Mum panicked! The spider had already climbed down as it was chuckling to itself! : D

Of course I have a great imagination... But spiders, like all other animals, birds and insects and anything else does have a sense of humour because I can ses it! :p
 
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If you hate spiders, do not watch Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond. The spider scene in that movie is awesomely grisly.
 
the smurfs halloween GIF by Boomerang Official
 
Outdated said:
Australia has more than 1500 species of spider, most of them completely harmless and some of them much loved by most Aussies. Our absolute favourite is the Huntsman, pictured below. Completely harmless to humans even if you do aggravate one enough to bite you. And you'd have to try hard to make them do that, they're quite passive with people.

Huntsmans do make web, or silk, but not as a tool for catching prey. The reason for their name, they actively hunt, chasing things down and catching them, and in the warmer weather they're incredibly active. I had one run up me one day and launch itself from my shoulder to grab a wasp that was hovering above me. I've seen video and pictures of them catching all sorts of things including frogs and lizards and even mice.

I always put them back outside if they come in to my home, not because I don't want them around but because they can get trapped in houses and there's not enough for them to eat inside. One of the ways they use web is as a trail marker. When they come in to your house they'll leave one single strand of web trailing behind them so that they can find their way back out fast if they have to. If that strand gets broken then they have to start searching for the exit.

The only other way they use web is the female will make a pouch to keep her eggs in, something she can pick up and move if her chosen hiding place comes under threat.

These are by no means our biggest spiders either, but they're certainly up there. :)

View attachment 128222
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Very pretty!
 
Tom said:
Charlotte's Web is a good suggestion. I haven't seen it in ages but I remember it being a sweet story.

For maintaining boundries I think the 'brush off' is probably the easiest and most natural. You just do the same thing as when you get a piece of leaf or debris on your clothes. With the back of you hand a quick brush off away from your body. If it's really tiny, it's safer (for the spider) if you can get it to climb onto something, like a twig or scrap of paper and set it down.

When I was stationed in South Carolina our unit had a stretch of road we used to clean up trash on, once a year. One year I was paired off with an nature-inexperienced new guy and I warned him to stay on the mowed part next to the road and not venture into the tall weeds and brush. Sure enough a short time later I heard a weird gurgling noise behind me. Turning around I saw our Airman down in the brush his eyes huge, arms stretched out wide staring in horror at a huge bright yellow and black spider sitting squarely on his chest. 'Wha, what do I do!' he pleaded in panic. "Brush it off!' I said unable not to laugh. And with a 'Ahhhaaah! he swiped it away. :D
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The best way to get an insect or spider off you is to blow it off - if you can. Brushing it off with a hand risks pressing on it which can provoke a bite. Almost all spider bites involve the spider being pressed against the skin. They can't eat you so they run away if they can.
 
There is a species of jumping spider known as the Himalayan jumping spider that lives at elevations of up to 22,000 feet in the Himalayan Mountains, including on Mt Everest.

They are a candidate for the highest known permanent resident species on Earth.
 
My friends saw a spider web in an upper corner of their bathroom, so they started taking all the dead flies, etc, that they found there, and really fattened the spinner up.
One time, I swept the toe space under my kitchen cabinets, and noticed a fly flying in an erratic, tight pattern in the gap. Only it wasn't flying, it was dangling from a single strand of web. There was a spider running for its life along the bottom of the cabinet, but it wasn't leaving the fly behind.
I really love the sight of big spider webs outside in the morning dew. I'm tempted to spray-paint one to build up thickness until I can transfer it to paper.
Spider silk is exceptionally strong and resilient, beating most aerospace materials. Someone decided to look for the strongest example, and it was not hard to find, crossing wide streams.
 
Shevek said:
Spider silk is exceptionally strong and resilient, beating most aerospace materials. Someone decided to look for the strongest example, and it was not hard to find, crossing wide streams.
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We have a Golden Orb spider in the north of the country that catches birds and small bats in it's webs.

25098680-8035699-image-m-10_1582498810669.jpg
 
A spider's web has strong radial threads as a framework to walk on and support the thinner, sticky threads that catch other insects. Each radial thread has a different length and tension, so when something is caught, the frequency of the vibration tells the spider which direction to find it in.
 
Au Naturel said:
That looks photoshopped. Or maybe the hand was way behind the spider. Big but harmless and easily handled. They farm those spiders for their silk.
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I know the hand is a long way behind that web, I've tried to get close up photos of them myself and they act very defensively, they don't just stay sitting there. One of them spat at me. They are bigger than the huntsmans though.

en.wikipedia.org

Trichonephila edulis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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I know I’m not very tolerant of people who want to kill spiders automatically. Mostly, spiders should be left alone so they can catch mosquitoes and so on in their webs. Sometimes there may be a need to get rid of one but only if there is really no alternative.
 
In Europe, it is common to have a spider ladder dangling into a bathtub, for the spiders who get trapped there with no line out.
The original spider, with just one dangling sticky thread, is still making a living.
We can't farm spider fiber the way we can get silk, because spiders are cannibals.
 
Shevek said:
In Europe, it is common to have a spider ladder dangling into a bathtub, for the spiders who get trapped there with no line out.
The original spider, with just one dangling sticky thread, is still making a living.
We can't farm spider fiber the way we can get silk, because spiders are cannibals.
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Most of it is from silkworms with spider silk genes added. Though there is some effort to harvest wild spidersilk.

1-spiders.jpg


www.sciencenews.org

Spider men weave silken tapestry | Science News

It took herculean effort, but Madagascar crafters created an extraordinary piece of woven art from spider silk.
www.sciencenews.org www.sciencenews.org
 
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