Spiders can be quite scary. Especially if you look at
those up-close pictures. But what is it about spiders that scare us so
easily? Are spiders really as dangerous as we make them out to be?
Should we be so scared? For the most part, the answer is no. There is a
lot of misinformation out there concerning spiders and their
capabilities. For example, there is an often repeated statistic that the
average person will swallow “x” amount of spiders within “y” period of
time. Sometimes x is 4, sometimes 8, sometimes y is 1 night, sometimes
it is a lifetime. The important thing to realize here, however, is that
these “statistics” are almost always wrong. Your mouth is actually quite
a terrible place for a spider to hide. They would not like it at all and
if they were given the chance they would be sure to steer very clear of
it. So, although some people who sleep outside on the ground in less
developed countries may quite possibly swallow a spider at some point in
their lives, it is not the norm. And if you average all the people in
the world together, the number of the spiders that the average person
swallows every night is basically 0. So with that out of the way, these
are some reasons spiders are extremely terrifying but insanely
interesting!
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You think swimming will save you from a spider attack? Wrong! Some
species can swim and even breathe under water!
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Spiders recycle their webs by eating them
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A female black widow's venom is 15 times more powerful than that of a
rattlesnake.
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Orb spiders mummify their prey before killing it |
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95% of the spiders in your house have never gone outside
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Although Australia is known for dangerous animals, the last time
somebody died of a spider bite on the continent was in 1981.
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Along with snails and lobsters, spiders have blue blood. This is due to
a high copper content.
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Most spiders live for only 1 year, but some tarantulas can live for
nearly 20 years.
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If you are scared of spiders then you are more likely
to find a spider in your room. This is simply due to the fact that
someone who isn't afraid of spiders might never notice that there was
even a spider near them.
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Spider silk is almost 5 times stronger than steel
(pound for pound).
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Spiders are on every continent except Antarctica |