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You might've heard the urban legend that sleeping people swallow about eight spiders a year. The "factoid" is definitely eye-catching — but it's also improbable.
People do not swallow large numbers of spiders during sleep. A sleeping person makes noises that warn spiders of danger. [91] [92] Most people also wake up from sleep when they have a spider on their face. [93] A female Chinese mantis simultaneously copulating with and cannibalizing her mate; this does not occur every time mantises mate.
"Spiders Georg" is an Internet meme that began circulating on the microblogging website Tumblr in 2013. It was created by Max Lavergne as a humorous post involving a common misconception about the average number of spiders accidentally swallowed per year by each human. The post saw an increase in popularity the following year, and the format of ...
Spiders serve as a recurring motif in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. [66] [g] Tolkien included giant spiders in his 1937 book The Hobbit where they roamed Mirkwood, attacking and sometimes capturing the main characters. [68] The character of Ungoliant is featured as a spiderlike entity, and as a personification of Night from his earliest writings.
Luckily, spiders eat mostly insects -- especially the ones you may also find in your home. But as spiders get bigger, so do their prey, and larger arachnids feast on lizards, birds and small mammals.
Wolf spider. What they look like: With over 200 species of wolf spiders crawling around, it’s no wonder that they range in size and appearance.“The largest species can be up to an inch and a ...
Bolas: Bolas spiders are unusual orb-weaver spiders that do not spin the webs. Instead, they hunt by using a sticky 'capture blob' of silk on the end of a line, known as a ' bolas '. By swinging the bolas at flying male moths or moth flies nearby, the spider may snag its prey rather like a fisherman snagging a fish on a hook.
Arachnologists do acknowledge that many people are fearful of spiders and may not want them around. But there's no need to burn your house down to rid yourself of the critters.