They liquefy their prey and feed their babies on their own rotting insides … 12 incredible gross facts about spiders
Arachnophobes beware! These amazing facts will seriously gross you out
AT this time of year spiders seem to be everywhere.
They’re lurking in the corner of your home, hiding in your shoes and scuttling across the floor when you’re putting your feet up with a cuppa.
Autumn is mating season for the scary little critters and which means the male spiders are on the move, hunting for those elusive females.
And the colder weather drives them inside – which is bad news for arachnophobes.
But there are some things about our eight-legged friends that will freak you out more than finding a big hairy one in the bath.
1. They liquefy their prey
Ever wondered how small spiders digest flies that are almost as big as them?
The truth is that their stomachs can’t handle solid food at all so they break it down by spitting or injecting digestive juices. Once it starts to dissolve they can chew it.
Even worse, some species just suck the liquefied innards out and leave the husk of their victim.
2.One spider feeds her babies on their own rotting insides
Most spiders are terrible mums – usually leaving her brood to fend for themselves as soon as they hatch.
But the Mothercare Spider is an excellent mum, gathering her babies round her and feeding them or regurgitated food when they tug at her legs.
At the same time her own body is decaying so the hungry kids are actually eating a mixture of her vomit and her own r
otting insides.
That’s true motherly love.
3.They have two ‘penises’
Male spiders have two appendages called pedipalps, which they charge with sperm and insert into the female spider’s reproductive opening to mate.
4. Black Widow males really want to be eaten
So we all know the female Black Widow turns deadly as soon as she’s mated but, amazingly, the weary mate has no intention of trying to save his skin.
In fact if his lady isn’t hungry, he will actually place himself in her jaws to encourage her to eat him.
5.There are at least 30 spiders in your house right now
There are 750 million spiders in the UK in the autumn and that means a fair few are hiding in your home.
6. They have THOUSANDS of babies
Web-building spiders produce several egg sacs, each containing dozens of eggs. Some species can lay up to 1,500 in one sitting – with each one hatching into a spiderling.
Quite a family.
7.If a spider is running, it’s horny
Unless they’re running away from the glass you are trying to catch them in, a scurrying spider is usually looking for a mate.
8. Some of them are enormous
The largest house spider officially measured was five inches across, including its legs.
9. They shed their skin
All spiders lose their skin several times when they’re young.
Hormones cause their outer shell to detach and a new one to grow in its place.
10. They can fly
Scurrying along on eight legs may be fast but flying through the air is faster.
Small spiders, especially babies, use a technique called “ballooning” – wrapping themselves in a thing bubble which then blows in the wind – to travel a few feet at a time.
In fact they have been known to travel as far as 1000 miles, to land on ships that are out at sea.
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11. Spider webs are great bandages
Webs are covered in antibiotics which kills bacteria and fungus, to protect it in dark corners.
So if you are ever in the wilds and cut yourself, a web will stop infection.
Just make sure there’s no spiders in it first.
12.They are covered in waterproof hair
When you wash them down the plughole, the hair traps air and allows them to survive for hours in water.
That’s why they climb back out the plughole.