DailyDirt: Scary Spiders…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
If you don’t like the look of spiders, you’re not alone. Some folks think that if you learn more about spiders, the less afraid you’ll be of them. Maybe that’s true. Maybe. Spiders exhibit all kinds of fascinating behaviors… and you’ll have to decide for yourself if knowing about these spider traits makes them more or less scary for you. Here are just a few links to haunt your nightmares.
- Typically, everyone thinks spiders just eat flies and don’t bother us larger creatures, but there are some spiders all over the world that eat fish. Spiders are also known to eat shrimp and frogs… [url]
- Spider families apparently cooperate quite a bit, and older spider siblings help out their younger siblings to hunt down prey. This practice boosts the health of the entire family of spiders and helps carry on the family genes. [url]
- Some spiders build fake spider decoys from leaves, twigs, dead insect parts.. to confuse spider predators. These fake decoys aren’t quite as scary as the shell of a tarantula after it’s finished molting, but they don’t need to be that good to help a spider avoid becoming some other creature’s lunch. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: arachnophobia, decoys, predators, prey, spiders
Comments on “DailyDirt: Scary Spiders…”
If “typically, everyone thinks spiders…don’t bother us larger creatures”, why do people see black widows and brown recluses as dangerous?
Re: Re:
Clearly, you’ve never been bit by either. Search images for “black widow+brown recluse bites”
Re: Re:
My father had a bite from a brown recluse spider, when he was in a hospital while he was under diagnosis for what turned out to be leukemia. The hospital was most embarrassed, and it was the doctors that worked on the spider bite that recognized the leukemia. Mid 70’s, less was known then.
So...
How soon can we get space colonies so I have to somewhere safe to run away screaming to as I flee the inevitable Great Spider Uprising?
Let's all wear spide silk!
http://www.wired.com/2009/09/spider-silk/
Male mouse spider loves the rain
A relation of the trapdoor spider, who looks scary, comes out after rainfall… and another case of the male being
happy to become a meal in return for safely shooting his load right on target.
Close-up image associated with the story:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/5543046-3×2-940×627.jpg
Male mouse spider loves the rain
Sorry, reposting… the story URL did not appear in the body of the previous post.
A relation of the trapdoor spider, who looks scary, comes out after rainfall… and another case of the
male being happy to become a meal in return for safely shooting his load right on target.
Story:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-23/male-mouse-spider-loves-the-rain/5543064
Close-up image associated with the story:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/5543046-3×2-940×627.jpg
spiders are people too...
can’t remember if i’ve bored the kampers here with my personal observations, but our 10 acres is usually absolutely chock full of spiders, mostly golden orb weavers and crab spiders, but all kinds…
the last couple years, the spider population has crashed, we used to carry a ‘spider-stick’ to brush away the webs when we walked the trails through the woods; now ? don’t need it, hardly 1/100th of how many there used to be…
is it coincidental that the number of observed anoles, blue-tailed skinks, snakes has gone way down too ? ? ?
(oh, and fuk u spel czech, anoles and skinks are both ‘real’ words, what useless crap…)
couple more spider factoids:
if you didn’t know, ALL spiders are venomous, just some is so weak it is not a threat…
if you go out on your lawn at dusk/night, and shine your flashlight, *most* of the reflections you think is moisture or dew on the grass, are spider eyes looking back at you…