Damn, that's a great OP. I almost want a spider as a pet now
Thank you! And I've actually been researching that very thing, myself!
Sounds like BS to me.
As a Brit, we don't have half of these insects, and if by squishing every spider I see I have to deal with a couple more flies and wasps, so be it - I'll squish them too.
Bees I'm cool with - everything else gets to read yesterdays news REALLY upclose.
They are there. Even if you don't see them, there are there. Every continent is littered with insects minus Antarctica.
I used to kill every spider i saw, nowadays i let them be. If i kill a mosquito, i just bring it to his web.
We are total bro's.
Thanks for this topic, OP.
Spiders are fascinating, shame though that i have to kill the chilean recluses because they are far too dangerous to be left wandering the house, however, i try to protect the tiger spiders that eat the recluses.
That's really my stance on it. I leave most alone, but if I can clearly identify a recluse or widow, I have to evaluate if it's worth risking a bite to get them back outside, or just kill them. This is a stark contrast to my old stance which was to kill everything.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
There's a show on BBC4 tomorrow called Spider House, basically filling a house with spiders and filming what they get up to. Like Big Brother but more spider based.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mqc4z
I have to check this out. Sounds crazy!
Legit question: Are all spiders venomous?
Most spiders are venomous. It's just that most don't have a medically significant effect on humans. Some animals like cats and dogs are immune to some species while those same wrecks us, like the Sydney Funnel-web, and so on and so forth.
I respect spiders and what they do. I try not to kill insects as a general rule but it's hard mustering up the courage to find a tissue to pick a spider up. There's just something inherently creepy about these things, I just can't get over it. I do admit to finding some species super cool, though: the trapdoor spider for instance I find fascinating.
I was just about to talk about that one
....
I wanna speak on my favorite species of spiders, which all fall under the infraorder of
Mygalomorphae. This infraorder includes
tarantulas, funnel-webs, and trapdoor spiders to name a few. In my opinion these are some of the most interesting of all spiders. The trapdoor spiders for instance, are like military tacticians in how they hunt.
They dig a burrow and place silk in various areas of the burrow (sometimes all over), and construct a trapdoor made of soil, vegetation and silk from around the immediate area which they place directly on top. Using silk "trip-wire" around the surface of the burrow, they wait very patiently for anything that may walk by, and quickly jumping out and grabbing anything that trips a wire (which are connected to some of the silk on the inside of the burrow, which the spiders use their legs to sense movement on the outside). They know which direction to pounce in because of this. There is just not much their prey can do about this.
A genus of trapdoor spiders called Cyclocosmia are even more interesting, and weird by some accounts. You see when threatened, they will actually use their own body as a defense of their home, using their abdomen to seal up the entrance. But it's not a normal abdomen, as they have a very unique one designed just for this very act. A hardened abruptly ending and ribbed back end. Their ass is literally a
stopper or plug.
A cool fact is that trapdoor spiders are commonly kept as pets! Easy to care for and house due to their medium size and not needing a huge enclosure (just a large jar of some kind). Funnel-web spiders are similar both in hunting and appearance, and I will speak on that next time.
