It is well known that spiders have eight legs, spin webs, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are also quite a few things about spiders that are not as well known. Often these arachnids have a bad wrap, and how they are helpful is easily forgotten. Here are four very interesting facts about spiders.
How They Help
They are a key to the ecosystem
Because they eat insects, spiders are known to help suppress the insect populations around them. They keep the numbers of harmful populations of insects down and allow the plant life that would be affected by these insects to flourish. This is especially true of agricultural areas and spiders in the southwest. They also are pollinators, which is another important way they help other plants stay healthy.
They are a resource for others
Often people forget that spiders are food for many other living things. This includes birds, larger insects, smaller mammals, and even some fish. Additionally, their webs are important to others too. Hummingbirds will collect spider webs and use them along with sticks and other natural material to build their nests.
They are important to science
The scientific community that studies spiders believes we have much to learn from them. The strength found in a spider’s silk is unmatched by any man-made material. A single strand is known to be five times stronger than a piece of steel of the same size. That strength paired with the elasticity, cannot be replicated as of yet, but people are trying. Some types of spiders can create a web that is ten times stronger than Kevlar.
Scientists have found that the design of a spider web in a given location can indicate the health of the spider, specifically in response to chemicals. They studied spiders with a variety of stimulants (such as caffeine). They found that these stimulants affected the look of a web, caffeine would influence a poorly designed web, and other stimulants would create either beautiful or erratic webs. This led scientists to see that spiders could be considered bellwethers of air pollutants in the future.
With 38,000 species worldwide (and many still undiscovered), humans are cohabitants of this world with spiders, and these facts show how much we truly benefit from their existence.
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