How many paws does a spider have or the most entertaining facts about creatures living on a web

We constantly intersect with spiders - in nature, in the country, and even in our apartments. They are everywhere, but most of us know little about them. For example, how many paws does a spider have? Or what does he eat, especially when the apartment is absolutely clean? What is arachnophobia and what is its cause? We will answer these and many other interesting questions today.

About arachnophobia

Science knows more than 40 thousand species of spiders. Some are distinguished by their size, others by toxicity, others by color. But at the same time, for most, the appearance of absolutely all arachnids is unattractive, and some experience panic fear in front of them. Such people are called arachnophobia.

It is interesting! According to statistics, the fear of spiders is much stronger than the fear of firearms and flying on planes!

But why are people afraid of spiders? Indeed, if you look, then arachnid has much more reason to be afraid of a person - he is much less likely to do us any harm than we do with him. Thus, the phobia itself seems somewhat irrational.

There is a theory that the fear of spiders is rooted 350 million years ago, in those days when a person was not yet. Most fossil arachnids were poisonous and posed a serious threat to primates. As a result, the latter developed a situational alertness reflex - when a spider appeared, they were forced to hide at lightning speed. Over time, deadly species became much less, but instinctive fear remained. Thus, it turns out that arachophobia developed in the framework of human evolution.

It is interesting! Some peoples, mostly uncivilized, arachnophobia is unknown - some, including children, can quite easily stroke quite large spiders, others even eat them!

About legs

As for the spider’s legs itself, their number is not so much interesting as their purpose. So, the spider has eight legs and each has six joints; if you count, it turns out that he has forty-eight knees.

It is interesting! It is the number of legs that distinguishes spiders from insects! The latter have six!

What can a spider do with them?

• Some species, when moving, are capable of developing impressive speed and very quickly catch up with potential prey.
• Others may make long jumps; such spiders are predominantly stunted, and the jump distance usually exceeds their body size by about 50 times.
• Spider legs are not only a means of transportation, but also an organ of smell. With their help, he can hunt successfully, determining if the victim that is caught in the web is edible.

It is interesting! The spider can be easily lured by playing the violin. And this is not evidence that arachnids are music lovers. Just the sound of this instrument gives rise to vibrations to which spiders react during hunting!

About the neighborhood with people

Most actively, spiders settle in those places in which food is present in abundance.The diet of the spider will depend on its species, but mainly insects. There are quite a few of them in the warm season in the wild, however, even in summer, spiders are often found in living quarters.
So, why is this happening - why do spiders appear in the apartment? There are several explanations for this.

• Again the abundance of insects. This can be cockroaches, bedbugs, ants and other domestic animals, which multiplies rapidly and constantly moves through all rooms.
• Unsanitary conditions. Cluttered balconies, irregular house cleaning, fungus and mold in the corners - all this is ideal soil for the active reproduction of potential food for spiders.
• High humidity. Most often, increased humidity occurs in apartments located on the ground floors, as well as in private houses with poorly installed flooring. Plus, if there is a basement or a cellar nearby, and the windows face the shady side, this only exacerbates the situation. Such conditions are attractive to many insects, after which spiders will certainly stretch.

Where do the spiders in the apartment come from? They penetrate into living quarters through ventilation shafts, through cracks in window frames or simply on the clothes of the owners. Moreover, in the latter version, you can bring to your house not the spider itself, but its masonry, from which small spiders subsequently hatch. And if they have something to profit from in your apartment, then they will be happy to stay.

It is interesting! Usually spiders weave their web where the victim should fall into it. Thus, you can independently establish the epicenter of the reproduction of domestic insects, which will help get rid of the nest and the entire colony of uninvited guests!

Who settles next to us

Now let's find out which spiders live in apartments. The following may well exist next to us:

• A haymaker spider, aka a window spider or a centipede. His body can have a different structure, which depends on the subspecies, and various sizes - from 0.2 to 1 cm. He has very long legs - about five times more than the length of the body. A haying spider weaves its nets in the corners, often on window frames, and, being upside down, waits for prey to fall into them. As soon as the victim is entangled in the web, he immediately appears near it, bites and injects poison.
  

  It is interesting! At haying spiders cannibalism is observed. For example, in winter, when there are practically no insects, he no longer weaves a web, but goes on a quest for food on his own. He finds a web of another spider and begins to create vibrations, and when the owner comes running and is about to attack, the centipede rushes at him, with his long legs entangles him in a web and bites! A hayfire spider can be recognized by its very long legs and dark knee segments

• House spider. This arthropod has a yellowish body with a brown pattern. The sizes of the females are from 0.7 to 1.2 cm, the males are smaller - from 0.6 to 0.9 cm. The house spider is also a fairly frequent neighbor of a person, and his hunting nets have a funnel shape.

Sometimes the so-called vagabond spiders penetrate into living quarters. They do not weave nets and hunt exclusively on the go - they rush at their victim with one swift jump. However, they do not stay in apartments for a long time and leave after eating the caught prey.

A bit about nutrition

Quite often, people are genuinely surprised and cannot understand what spiders eat in their apartment, where there are no insects. In this case, it is important to remember one thing - even if you are sure that no one lives in your house except you, the appearance of spiders always indicates the opposite.

If a spider came to your house and weaved a web in it, it means that there is a victim nearby that can get into it. These small insects may not catch your eye, but at least someone in any apartment must live (provided that you do not carry out chemical pest control in it every week).

The spiders living in the apartment are insectivores and eat almost everything with paws, antennae and wings:

• under your bathtub, silverfish can calmly live;
• in the kitchen, where there is a vase of apples, tiny fruit flies are able to settle;
• in storerooms with food various beetles often eat up cereals, flour, etc .;
• in addition, it can be flies and mosquitoes accidentally flown from the street, insect larvae and other spiders.

It is interesting! Eating insects, spiders bring us great benefits. And if the latter did not exist, then in the abundance of the former we would simply choke!

Execution cannot be pardoned

There are several signs that say that promises to kill a spider, and even there are those that contradict each other. But today we will move away from popular beliefs and consider several theories that, in our opinion, are ways to explain why spiders cannot be killed.

1. According to legend, once upon a time a web of spiders saved a person’s life. He was persecuted and, forced to flee, hid in a cave, which was almost completely entangled in spider webs. The persecutors failed to find the fugitive; they didn’t even bother to explore the cave - there were so many cobwebs in it.
2. The second version, which tells why it is impossible to kill spiders in the house, is based on their active use in folk medicine of the past. In ancient times, healers for healing patients used mainly various decoctions and infusions, in which they added not only herbs, but also insects. Often a spider, ideally poisonous, acted as a healing “ingredient”. The poison was treated, so killing a spider without any serious purpose promised the early development of the disease.
3. The third legend says that spiders attract happiness - it gets entangled in their web and remains in the house. And the owner of the hunting nets, who settled in the living room, is a symbol of good news and prosperity. For this reason, to kill a spider means to drive out happiness from the house - there will be no one to twist the web and all good things will soon “fly away” from the house along with the last silk threads.

Small house spiders are not able to cause harm to human health. And if there are several, then this is an occasion to pay attention to the cleanliness of your own home. In this situation, you should not destroy the spiders, but the reason why they were in the apartment. Remember, spiders will always live where there is food for them.