How to Get Rid of Pest Spiders FOR BEGINNERS

The Dangers of Spider Bites

2011-09-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Yes it is quite true when experts would say there is less to fear in spider bites than the spider itself. There are indeed very few species of spiders (countable numbers) that can induce very potent venom toxins which could seriously harm human health and most of them are even far from the human civilizations. However, some of them do really live among us, like the black widow spider which happens to be very common in the North American Continent. They are the ones that people should still be on the lookout for as you may never know when and where they could attack and cause you the medical hassles you are quite forgiving of a possibility of.

Although, you have to understand that unlike our sinister insect friends, mosquitoes, spiders don't seek out human beings just so they could bite them. Generally, spiders will never ever bite any human beings unless it feels threatened, intimidated or cornered. In order, they don't bite unless they are somehow externally, deliberately or unintentionally disturbed. Also most spider fangs are so small that they are unable to penetrate an adult person's skin. Also, spiders may also bite humans if they are accidentally or deliberately disturbed in their webs. Web weaving spiders are often tricked into the impression that they have caught something in their webs and therefore, they bite.

In truth, the severity of a spider bite may depend on certain different factors such as the kind of spider that bit the person, the dosage of venom injected in a bite, and the age and health condition of the person that has been bit. More than half the time, spider bites don't cause any reaction at all, but there are certain individuals with skin allergies that tend to develop severe dermal reactions after a bite. The harshest conditions that a normal healthy person could get from a common spider bite would range from minimal itching in the skin, stiffness, redness, minor inflammation, and pain which at worst would be par to a bee sting. Commonly, symptoms from a spider bite could only last from a few minutes to few hours depending on the size of the spider fangs and the kind of venom injected upon a bite. However, reactions to every bite may differ from person to person. If the symptoms would evolve into much harsher conditions of reactions, it would be wise to call a physician right away or send the person bitten to a hospital to have the reactions checked and treated as soon as possible.

There are times as well the spider bites are undetectable and symptoms would only then develop after a few minutes to hours after the bite. In some cases, there are species of arthropods that are often mistaken as spiders when they bite. Arthropods like ticks, bees, fleas, bedbugs, wasps, and mosquitoes.

First Aid Treatments

For first aid treatments on spider bites, you may commence with washing the bitten area first with clean water and then applying an antiseptic to prevent any possible infections. Then you can use ice or ice cold water to reduce the inflammation or swelling of the bitten spot. Often, the bites from arthropods, not only limited to spiders, could result to extreme itchiness. Instead of scratching the bitten area, one should apply itch relieving medications or treatments on it. Scratching the bitten area may potentially lead to dermal lacerations which could become infected and worsen the situation. However, if you find out early one that a black widow or any member of the venomous spider species have bitten you, or you suddenly have internal sensations as reactions to the bite, it would be wise to have yourself check with a physician or submit yourself of clinical confinement.

Two General Classifications of Spiders

2011-08-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

Most of us don't pay close attention to how spiders behave. We often are inhibited by the precedence of fear and disgust that's why we take less pleasure in getting to know these 8-legged creatures. While this is true and undeniable, there are also things we all need to know about them in order to fully understand their nature. Knowing them fully doesn't only warrant us of extra additional knowledge about things, but it can also give us an idea on how to effectively deal with them without fail. That is the most important part in dealing with pest like spiders; to know more about them and use this collective information against them so that we won't have to be bothered by them anymore in the near future.

For beginners, we could start by getting to know the two general classifications of spiders that we often find in our homes. Actually, we can generalize them into two types: one is the kind of spider that hunts or often called wandering spiders, and the other one is the kind of spider that builds webs. These two distinctions basically pertain to how they approach their prey. Although, all spider species are able to produce spider silk and threads, some of them don't necessarily use them to capture their prey. Wandering spiders would often take their time walking on the ground or prowling in the trees in search for meal. While orb weaving spiders take their time hanging in their webs until a prey ensnares itself on the sticky structure. Typically, wandering spiders are relatively larger than web-building spiders naturally because they would have to really in their brute strength to fight their way in rendering their prey. They also usually have keener eyesight for better detection of their food while on the other hand, web-building spider are often weaker or even blind in their visual capabilities.

These are the two general classifications of spiders. Below we will be further identifying which type of spider belongs to what classification so that you will be able to identify them as well whenever they are present inside your household. It is important that you get to know them so that you may be able to know what type of control method you are going to use or what type of approach will you do to effectively deal with them. Often there are certain specific methods of approach depending on what classification of spider you are dealing with.

Hunting Spiders Members

1. Jumping Spiders

Perhaps the most common type and regularly seen hunting spider member is the jumping spider. We do really see them all around most of the time whether indoor or outdoor. We may say that they have probably infiltrated all levels of human territories and perhaps they are also the most prevalent and numerous species of spiders in the planet. These athletically agile spiders are often found most active at day time. They are usually found in window ceils, verandas, balconies, ceilings, walls and all other areas of the house which are usually exposed to sunlight. They frequent this type of places because they instinctively know that the light of the sun will enable them to see their prey clearly and thus giving them leverage in easily capturing their prey. Jumping spiders are generally small spiders. They range from 1/5 to 1/2 of an inch long and usually they are dark colored and compact looking arthropods.

2. Wolf Spiders

This type of spiders is larger than most species of spiders in the planet. They are normally found outdoors but often found as well indoors in certain occasions. These spiders are prowlers and are usually seen on the ground, lurking behind on rocks stalking for any passer-by prey. But their hunting grounds are not only limited to that as they are also found in varieties of hunting locations such as meadows, grassy fields, bogs and swamps. They usually come out of their hideouts when the temperature is warm. They find this environmental temperament as an ideal season to go on hunting.

3. Fishing Spiders

Fishing spiders or dock spiders are literally into fishing. As their name would imply, they are usually found in wet to watery places like ponds, swamps, streams, and water inlets that have vegetations nearby. They are rarely seen indoors but whenever an opportunity arises they may pay a visit. Fishing spiders are dubbed to be the largest spider species in the upper Midwest areas, ranging from an inch to an inch and a half long. However if they do spread their legs, they could reach as much as four inches in length.

Web-Building Spiders Members

1. Comb Footed Spiders

Commonly known as the cobweb spiders, this type of spiders is generally found indoors and are usually the ones considered as pests by humans. They are thought to be so because they cause terrible nuisance to a house's maintenance with all their orb webs scattered all around the house. They can be also found outdoors, but most of the time they are indoors because they are instinctively aware that wherever sunlight is unable to reach, mosquitoes and other small insects thrive. These medium sized (1/8 to 3/8 inch) long spiders spend most of the day waiting for little insects to get entrapped in their webs.

2. Orb Spiders

This type of spiders requires larger coverage for their web entrapment thus they would need a larger and much more open space to build their orb webs. That's why they are not usually found indoors but are naturally found in outdoor areas like the lawn or the garden, wherein they could catch their type of prey and be able to build their full span webs. These iridescently colored spiders are relatively large species of spiders and would generally take-on species of insects relatively large as well in contrast to their own size.

3. Grass Spiders

Grass spiders of course are naturally found outdoors. But like all spiders, they can still be found wandering in certain occasions inside the house. These spiders are moderately sized range from 1/2 to 3/4 inch long.

Outdoor Spider Control

2011-08-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Your spider friends may often be found both indoors and outdoors and you would really have to do something about them before you end up having a houseful of cobwebs and spider mess. Control has to be implemented in any way necessary for they may not cause physical damage to your homes but they could very well ruin a good home fashion statement and designing and you really don't want that kind of thing from happening to your beloved house. As much as possible you would want your house to stay as pretty as it was when it got built and spiders can really make that house of yours look old.

But first of all, you would have to understand why there are certain spiders found indoors and why other type of spiders are commonly found only outside of the house. If you get to know the reasons why they are found inhabiting in two different locations, you will come to understand how their biological responses work and hopefully you will be able to know how to approach the idea of controlling them. You have to understand that there are certain conditions or circumstances that dictates a spider or spiders where to dwell in a given period of time. It's your job to figure that out.

In this article we will be discussing what are the reasons behind the disparity of spider locations within a household, a discussion on the difference between indoor and outdoor spiders and how to control them given the specific spider and their location.

Implementation of Residential Spider Control

Spiders have always been cold blooded creatures, except those hairy few which are considered as mammals to some extent. That's why when the weather is warm they are usually found lurking inside the house for they won't be able to tolerate the warm weather conditions outside. But it doesn't necessarily go that they are absolutely not found inside the house during other weathers. It's just that it becomes high time for them to be lurking inside the house if it's summer or fall seasons. Usually they take this time of the year to look for hibernating wards inside human dwellings.

The implementation of spider control methods and approaches can prove to be quite a challenging task. You have to understand that it is almost improbable to fully eradicate the spiders that dwell inside the house and therefore you have to accept that there will always be still some of them left even after you have executed a full blown spider control method. Think about it, a spider could lay hundreds to thousands of eggs in a single sitting. If you happen to live in a house nearby a susceptible spider habitat like rivers, lakes or rainforests, you can therefore expect that there will be a lot of spider visitors in your home. Therefore, you may have to employ more potent measures in dealing with this situation. Most likely your house will become the house of many different species of spiders and that would be inclusive of the most dangerous ones.

One thing you have to understand in all of these is that you would have to foster a sense of acceptance on spiders at the end of the day, knowing that you can't really get rid of all of them. That would be the only time you will have peace of mind when it comes to dealing with them. One way to develop that sense of acceptance is to acknowledge their important roles to the environment. Their beneficial nature is also the foundation of many of the other species role to the entire ecosystem making them very important proponents to the environment. If ever, fostering a level of tolerance to spiders may just not be possible, you may take other options of approaches in dealing with them by using non-chemical based methods that will not have lethal aftermaths on spiders.

Outdoor Spider Control Approaches

You are very well aware that one way or the other you would have to reduce the population of spiders that inhabit your house. You may opt to begin with the usage of conventional, non-chemical based methods in dealing with them. These means are more manual in nature but they are nevertheless still very effective in reducing the spider presence inside your home. Although, it would require extra amount of time and effort but it will surely still deliver the kind of quality output you would want at the end of the day.

1. Sanitation is a very important aspect to a pest-free household. If your house is clean and free from all the things that are prone to pest infestations, then you can be assured that even spiders will not thread anywhere near your house. You may start doing that by removing stockpiles of woods or twigs or any other forms of debris that may become suitable dwelling places for spiders. Usually these kinds of places are the ones regularly inhabited by black widows which happen to be one of the most venomous spiders in the world. If you don't want to fall victim of a widow's bite, then you must get rid of those kinds of piles in your house. The same thing applies to office establishments.

2. Grasses, vines, weeds, and shrubs are among the most favorite organic places that spiders dwell. Spiders like the cool environment that these organic entities give therefore they find them as suitable breeding areas. If you don't want spiders to breed more of their species, you have to make it a point that you prevent grasses and shrubs from growing into more bushy proportions. Always cut them short and maintain them all throughout.

3. Remove webs as much as you can as they can be broods to thousands of spider eggs that may hatch anytime soon. You may call this approach as population control wherein you halt the proliferation of spider inhabitants inside your house. You may do that by knocking webs with broomsticks or water sprays.

Indoor Spider Control

2011-08-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most annoying part of having a pest spider infestation within your territory is when they have infiltrated the interiors of your home. More than half the time you are able to tolerate spiders' presence outside of your home whether be it in your lawn or garden. You seem to perceive that scenario to be probably okay. However, it is a different story if spiders are present inside your house, with all the cobwebs everywhere and sometimes, they come down to you from the ceiling crawling on your hair or on your face while you are asleep. Just the thought of it grosses you out to fear. It becomes an even worse scenario if we are talking about people who are apparently arachnophobic. Imagine how will they be able to handle such sort of situation? Therefore, there is indeed a need for a homeowner to know the ways on how to keep those spiders from getting inside their priced abode.

A way to know how to deal with spiders that thrive in the interiors is to know the indoor spider control approaches. In contrast to outdoor spider approaches, this spider control approach deals with the spiders that are already inside the house. The main purpose is to get rid of them. However, to become more efficient and effective in getting rid of spiders for good, you have to compound this approach with the preventative aspects of outdoor spider control. These two approaches would have to go hand in hand in order to successfully combat spider infestations. You may go through the previous article if you wish to have review on how to keep spiders away from your outdoor territories and to prevent them from invading your internal home.

Indoor Spider Control

Indoor spider controls are still manual approaches in dealing with spiders just like the outdoor approaches. But this would require you to pay more close attention to the interior parts of your territories. Physical areas of the house which can be a possible entrance to spiders for them to get inside your house or possible reasons why spiders would deliberately choose to be inside your house, i.e. food resources, unsanitary conditions. You have to make sure that you eliminate all these possible reasons so that you can be ascertained of a pest spider free environment.

Despite being manual in nature, you may also opt to use some tolerable insecticide to assist your indoor spider control approaches. However, you would have to make sure that you are using the kind of insecticides that are legally prescribed. There are these types of insecticides that lead to environmental risks and harms and they happen to be prohibited by the law to be used for residential and commercial purposes. In order to avoid purchasing the wrong insecticides, make it a point to always read first through the instructions in the labels and also, research firsthand on what are the type of insecticides that happen to be prohibited from usage.

Routine house cleaning is also important when you are controlling spiders that thrive indoors. If you happen to notice a thriving, persistent spider population inside your home, this may indicate that there is another insect population inside your home that serves as a food resource to the spiders.

In order to quell the presence of these food resources, you must:

1. Get rid of all the stockpiles of paper trashes out of your house. This can be a pile unused scratch papers, cartons and boxes and all other clutters. These can serve as homes to many mosquitoes and small insects which can also be in turn become a food source to spiders. If there are a lot of insects inhabiting those areas, it will serve as an invitation to spiders to get inside your home. Never allow this kind of thing from happening. Get rid of the garbage properly and make sure noting stockpiles anywhere inside your home.

2. Cracks and seams in walls, ceilings, floor corners and doors can always become passages for not only spiders but as well as other food insects for spiders into your house. Make it a point that you seal off these openings once and for all to prevent the food sources as well as the spiders themselves in entering your indoor territory. You may do that by using sealing solutions, cements, and etc. It is important that you scout out first and identify which places inside the house have these openings. From then you can now estimate how much sealing solutions you will need for the entire task to be done.

3. Screens may be effective filtering mechanisms for a house against mosquitoes and other insects. But they are useless when they are damaged and ran. Make sure that you regularly check on your house screens to see if they are damaged or not. Immediately replace damage screens with new ones and make sure to reinforce them properly. It would help if you can double your screen layers so that in case the initial layers get damaged, the other one will act as a failsafe.

4. You should have noticed that there are certain kinds of lighting fixtures that are attracting moths and other insects. This is actually empirical in nature as there are actually enticing forms of lights to insects. Make sure that you replace your light bulbs with less attractive lightings so that it will not invite these insects and thus thwart spiders as well. Yellow bulbs are usually less inviting than those fluorescent, mercury and sodium vapour bulbs.

5. Use vacuum or brooms to sweep off the webbings on your ceiling, wall and floor corners, window ceils and doors. This can hold egg sacs which will eventually become the next breed of spider inhabitants in your home. Remove them as you see them. Look for them wherever they could possibly be.

6. Lastly, check on what type of insects are most common inside your house so that you will know how to deal with them and to prevent spiders from turning them as food sources. You may be able to know this by checking on the webbings and see which insects are usually being caught.

General Spider Management

2011-08-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

I suppose there are only two generally way that would sum up the entire idea of pest control approach, even with spider control. One approach would be the use of preventive, non-chemical based methods and the other would be the chemical based. Both of them are effective and efficient in dealing with spider pests but more than half the time only one of them would fit to one's preferences on pest control methods. Sometimes, the preferences are governed by some set of rules and regulations as there are certain restrictions on some methods of approach in dealing with pest spiders. For example, there are some chemical based spider control pesticides that are not allowed in some states because they could serious detriment to the surrounding environment once it is used. Such considerations should be carefully and thoughtfully underscored to ensure that you will not have to go through any legal ramifications and sanctions in the near future.

But before we move on discussing about these pest spider control methods, there is an important thing that must be impressed to the reader of this article. The idea here is only to control them and not eradicate them. One must understand that supposedly, spiders are ought to be encouraged to exist in the environment because of their natural purposes that serve crucial importance to the ecological balance. Your task then is to maintain their numbers that they don't go out of hand and cause setbacks to your properties. At some point even, using pesticides to deal with spiders are no longer necessary, as they will on their own remove themselves from human territories. What you are actually doing when executing a pest spider control method is that you are controlling their population. And I suppose the best approach is to naturally get rid of their food sources by implementing sanitation inside your house. That way you wouldn't even have to kill them whenever necessary.

Prevention and Organic Pest Control Methods

Spiders are often small creatures and would conveniently fit in through small openings. Seams and small cracks are ideal passages for spiders to get inside your property. It would be wise to seal off these openings to prevent any further spider incursions. Another way for spiders to infiltrate inside your house is through vessels firewoods, plants, boxes, cartons and crates which are often transported inside-out of your house. In order to prevent spiders' transportation through these vessels, make sure that any of the items are checked and cleaned first before they are carried inside your home. That way you will prevent the spiders from attaching themselves through these items and infiltrating your home. Regular routine chores also help a lot in controlling spiders in your house. Usually spiders like to lurk and thrive in dirty secluded places and you have to make sure that such places don't exist inside your house. Vacuuming is always a very effective way to deal with spiders as their soft bodies could never be able to withstand the suction pressure. And also, clean off cobwebs as you see them. Dusty old cobwebs are potentially no longer in use by any spider.

If you are to take care of individual spiders, you may be able to do so placing a jar on them. Not the other end though cause it would squish them. Place a piece of paper beneath the jar so that they will be sealed within the jar and you can then just throw them away for good. Make sure you throw them away from your house otherwise, they will just probably find their way back in.

Screens could also help a lot in keeping spiders away from entering your house. Not only does it deter spiders from getting in but as well as other insects that spiders would have for food. If there's no food source to find inside your house, spiders will find no interest in thriving in your place. Make sure that the screens that you will use are those that are tight and have very small openings to ensure no insects will ever get through. You also have to regularly check on the screens to make sure there are no damages or ran on it.

Chemical Control

Usually, pesticides are of no use to quelling spider infestations unless you can visible spiders and spray it on them. That's the only time that spider pesticides could actually work. Fumigating type of pesticides is usually prohibited as they could often lead to serious health hazards and environmental risks due to unintentional absorption. There have been many occasions when a spider remains unaffected by any spider pesticide treatments. A spider may just walk on and over a treated area without getting killed even if the treatment has just been implemented a few hours ago. It means, it can only take effect on the spider if the pesticide is directly sprayed on the spider itself. The residuals of the spray have little or no effect at all to its target.

There are also certain chemical treatments that contain amorphous silica gel and also pyrethrins that deal with spider problems. However, complex chemicals such as these ought not to be used by amateur hands. Hence it would require professional assistance to have them applied effectively, and even with a professional's hands there are still necessary precautions that have to be done initially to ensure that the implementation of the chemical is safe. The chemical works as a corrosive element that imbues itself with the dust and air and once it comes in contact with the spider; the spider's exoskeleton will react to it, causing it to dry out and would eventually kill the spider at some point. The process is somehow like dehydration wherein the organism is deprived of its water components. Usually, these treatments are placed on seams and cracks wherein spiders are most likely to go through. So that by the time they get in the house, they wouldn't have much time anymore to live.

A Victory Story About Spider Fear II

2011-07-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

(This is part II of the guest post sent to me by Christian C. - read part I here)

So I went on living in a world full of fear over some creatures that are barely the size of my thumb (except for those species that are particularly larger though). I was somehow living in an incarcerated existence; full and hesitation in every move. I couldn't act or move around the way normal people would do. I was too afraid that I might end up encountering a spider along the way in any of the moves that I make. Too afraid to go to places in the fear that a spider might just be lurking in the dark corners of that place, it was a bit milder of hell-like life, however, nevertheless it was still bad living that way. I felt that I really had to do something to change things the way they were. Spiders are small creatures and are even apparently harmless according to many researches and scientific ratifications and therefore I should feel the way I do about them. I felt that I have to conquer this fear for them and find a way to surface from the drowning feeling of being imprisoned by intimidation. I can't live the difficult life anymore. One day I went out to find a way on how to deal with this long running fear for the creatures. I went to a nearby therapist.

The therapist that I went to was recommended by a friend in the office. That friend somehow noticed me so inhibited by my disorder and I couldn't be as productive as I should be. So I went to the therapist upon my office mate's advice. I felt awkward at first, entering the office of the therapist as I don't know where to begin in telling my tale or probably I felt ashamed that time telling him about my fear. I felt that the fear I had was just nothing else but a joke that could be personally dealt with. But it wasn't long until that I recollected myself and accepted that I do need some help and it has got to be with therapist that I will find one soon enough. A good kind of help I thought, considering his professional statute. I had a feeling that I was in the right place. I just hoped that I wouldn't end up getting disappointed to find out that the entire thing was a total sham.

I told the therapist everything that I've been through. Starting from how it all started and the progressive manifestation that have eventually developed me into fearing spiders. I even went into the process of introspection and regression, in order to fully remember the precise details and to assess which incident or situation that triggered me into fearing the creatures. It lead me into telling the real score of that incident when I watched the movie and the spider that fell off on my face. It didn't take much for the therapist to know the real problem as to why I developed such fear. And then he prepared me to a series of therapy sessions.

He started by talking me right into resting on the couch and asked me to meditate on my fear. He told me to visualize on the idea of seeing a spider and imagining that there's one that's near me right now. He also talked me into thinking that there's actually one spider that's crawling in my skin at the moment and in the concurrently asked me questions about how I felt towards the scenario. I told him that I'm really panicking at the moment and any time then I would truly freak out and would probably walk out of the room because of the mind projection thing that's going on. I started to feel that I was in the wrong place and my spirit began to weaver as I thought that I would never really get through the entire process. I thought that I would just settle with having the fear for my entire life. I even thought that as long as it doesn't get me killed I will be just okay. But a part of me wanted to continue and push through the entire nightmare-ish process of projecting a spider walking and crawling into my skin.

Even the therapist forced me into visualizing the entire idea of a spider walking into my skin. Every time I feel like giving up, the therapist would always remind of the goal I set upon myself when I entered the room and impressed unto me the gravity of the situation that will be if I don't succeed in the therapy. It somehow got me into thinking and decided to pursue the entire program even if the fear that has beset me is already crucifying me. But I know I had to push true.

The entire meditation and concentration part of the program took me a while until I got around of the idea of a spider crawling in my skin. I could already visualize me being calm about the spider presence. But the program didn't stop there as there is still the last part of the program which involves a more physical and real approach. This time, the therapist took a transparent jar with a spider as large as my fist. I almost felt like freaking out at that time and I think I was just a brink away from scurrying out of the room straight through the door. But I knew I had already made a resolve, and if I do run away, it would have been all for nothing and I don't want to make my trip to the therapist pointless. So I sat and the therapist freed the tarantula on my arm. I could feel the furry pointy legs brush into my skin and I seriously feel like jumping out. But the therapist reminded me of the concentration and visualization I had earlier and asked me to recur the thoughts and the feelings I had when I accepted. And I got over the feeling of fear at that very moment.

Since then I stopped fearing spiders. I don't try to catch them though and put them into jars to get back on them. But I could very well do those things I used to be afraid to do before. I could go to anywhere now without having to fear anything at all. Thanks to that therapy.

A Victory Story about Spider Fear I

2011-07-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

(This is a guest post by Christian C.)

If there are things that I wouldn't be able to forget in my life, then perhaps one of it is the fact that I was an arachnophobic. It was probably three years ago that I would hysterically react if ever I would find a spider that would thread along my presence. Even if the spider is meters away from me, but still in my line of sight, I would freak out and would immediately get out of the house or anywhere to avoid the its presence. The thought that it might eventually come close to me already shrinks my heart into absolute fear. I could not also forget how things were each time I get into a place and feel within me that there's actually a spider presence inside, I would feel relentlessly uptight, even if I'm not seeing any spider at all. The thought alone degrades me and would sometimes find myself screaming out of imaginary fear. My mentality is so much hinged in the idea that spiders are scary creatures and I think it all started out when I was five years old. Since then everything in how I see spiders
changed until three years ago that everything fortunately went well; that I didn't get to fear any spider's presence at all or at least I've learned to control my impulses whenever I see one. I could really not forget how things turned out just fine eventually. I thought there's absolutely no hope for me anymore, until I was introduced to an exposure therapy three years ago.

I knew that I had to do something about my debilitating condition towards my fear on spiders. It's considerably hampering my day to day activities already and I have been becoming quite unproductive because of it, especially when I started to work at the office. I am hesitant to go into certain places in the office which I think is inhabited by a spider and I'm even afraid to go under my office desk to throw trash into the basket because I fear that I might get bitten by a spider just lurking beneath the desk. It's a good thing that my superiors understood the state that I'm in and have given me ample consideration so as not to put me into a situation wherein I would irrationally freak out. This is how impeding my fear is for some time.

I do know that my fear towards spiders is irrational and compulsive and I'm very much aware that the fear is only a state of mind. However, I find it very difficult to do away with it once and for all. Every time I personally attempt to get rid of the fear, so as to force myself into encountering the spider (not even personally touching it), just by the mere presence of it, I would immediately withdraw from my resolve and go back right to where I was. I shrink in fear before I could even come close to that place where the spider is. Still I know that I have to get rid of it at some point. I know that I must not let things go the way they are right now with spiders or else I would direly suffer from the consequences of these compulsions. I have been considering medical help since then because I was already thinking that I couldn't handle these things on my own and the fear is growing in me and I'm beginning to think that it may reach a point of no return soon. I had to go and get some help to someone who really knows how to handle things like this.

Let's go back first to where it started. I remember that it was summer of the year when I was still five years old when I watched a horror movie about oversized spiders taking over the world. I could not remember the title of the movie as I was careless of such things before, being a five-year old and all, the only thing you would probably care about it the special effects you get out from the movie and the awe you would feel watching them. However, in this particular spider movie I have watched, I was in for more than just the feeling of awe in watching its special effects as I would contract a far worse feeling of fear out of it. I watched the spiders in the movie rampaging in the cities and tearing all the people in its way into pieces. It was a gore-ish movie and I believe I should have not watched it but apparently my elder sister's friends did not care about the sensitivity of a five-year-old's perception. After seeing the movie, I started to feel a sense of fear as the images of the movie scenes are constantly recurring in my mind. It went on that way for the following days until three days later, I was at the lawn of our house, playing underneath our big sycamore tree, when I suddenly noticed a glistening threadlike thing above me, and somehow it was reflecting the sun. And I eventually came to notice the X mark in the middle. I looked even more to discern what it was when suddenly I felt something dropped on my face and started to crawl. I could distinctively remember the furry, rough, pointy texture of its limbs as it crawled into my face for a second or so. The images of the spider move I last saw recurred like flashing images in my mind. And then I realized that it was a spider, I swiped it off my face as fast as I can and ran back home to hide. I dreaded the presence of a spider ever since.

So, until I grew up, I carried the fear within me, haunting me like some childhood ghost that's not letting go no matter what I do. I would really want to get rid of it but I don't how just yet.

to be continued...

Applying the Spider Fear Therapy to Yourself

2011-07-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

Spiders are hideous, disgusting and gross. Just the fact of imagining them lurking from the dark readying themselves to pounce for an imminent attack scares the hell out of you already. Don't worry, these sorts of fears don't only occur to you as they could actually happen to me as well and to everyone around you. Most people, even some of the braves of men would sometimes fear the presence of spiders nearby, because unlike larger animals which you can immediately detect and capture if necessary, spiders, being so small would prove to be a difficult thing to evade, let alone capturing them. You would also consider fearing the idea that there could be quite a lot of them everywhere. And if ever they do attack all at once, you are really in serious situation. You may be able to use traps, or fumigation methods to get rid of the spiders once and for all. However, there's no saying when they will be back for vengeance. Considering that there are still thousands of them outside of your house, an eventual spider infestation is just a matter of time once again. Therefore the obvious conclusion is you can never escape them. You may be able to run but you can never hide from their attacks if ever they would intently do so.

Spiders also come in many different color and often bright colors that they could definitely the candies in our eyes. Being an eye-catcher is a good thing in a different opinion, but when it comes to spiders, we could almost equate the color of the spider into fear. The fear of being more brightly colored the spider would be, the more dangerous they may become. However, in truth that is absolutely not true as that kind of indication is only applicable to snakes and not to spiders. The most dangerous of all spiders are not even colored so well at all. It's actually dull brown in color and you could almost mistake it for something else not poisonous at all. The black widow spider in itself is not brightly colored at all. The only color in them is the red hourglass shaped marking beneath their abdomen and of course the black. Still, we can get ourselves so hyped up from fear each and every time we see a spider come in our way. We get so fearful that we would even be so afraid to squish them right off. These are just of the common manifestations to anyone who fears the presence of spiders or in other words, a person who happens to have arachnophobia. They would usually manifest these behaviors each time they see on that would come their way. They would become so hysterically afraid that they wouldn't eve dare squish the spider right away even if it's already conveniently conducive for stepping. It is a different case however if you are squeamish. If you're squeamish, you wouldn't only fear squishing spider, but all the other bugs that are squishable.

So how do you deal with these kinds of fear yourself? How do you make sure that you wouldn't have to fret away from spiders each and every time you see one pass by your way? The bigger question would be now is how to deal with the problem without any help but still be able to conquer your fear with flying colors? Is that even possible?

The answer to these questions relies on how well you will be able to handle yourself and persevere in your quest to truly conquer your fear.

There are many ways to conquer the fear alone without the assistance of professional experts. It is also more advantageous that way because you wouldn't have to spend anything at all or any amount for professional help since you would be doing the treatment on your own. The truth that you have to understand essentially is the truth that any fear is conquerable because they are all a state of mind. Fear is just a matter of conquering your consciousness. If you conquer the conscious part of your brain that deals with the fear, then there's just absolutely nothing to fear about. The important ingredient here is courage. If you have to courage to conquer your fear, then you may therefore be able to be brave in anything that you are afraid of. The same thing goes as well with the fear of spiders. Spider fear is ultimately conquerable; you just have to make sure you are brave enough.

The first thing that you have to do in order to go through the initials of the treatment is to mentally condition your mind first. This can be done gaining enough information about the thing that you fear the most. If you fear spiders, you must research about the facts about spiders, both good and bad sides. If you know all these things about spiders, you may be able to use the facts you have learned to move on to the next step of the process. The next process now then would be acceptance.

The next process is acceptance. Using all the information you have gathered, inclusive of both pros and cons, you may start reconditioning your mind and begin accepting the nature of spiders as they are omnipresent and you can't do anything about it. If you comprehend the entire nature of spiders, it may truly help to accept all sides of them. For example, if you know that there are only a few species of spiders that are poisonous, you wouldn't have to fear anymore the multitudes of spiders that are inside the house because you know that you wouldn't have to worry of being harmed of them anymore.

Next step after acceptance is exposure. You will never be able to get to know and numb yourself from your fear when you won't expose yourself to it. Make sure that you will forcibly condition yourself and your mind to face your fear on spiders by physically touching a spider's presence. Once you get used to it, you'll never have to freak out every time you see one anymore.

How The Word "Arachnids" Came to Be?

2011-07-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

We commonly know spiders to be spiders and not on their real nomenclature arachnids probably because of the reason that it is appropriate to name them like that since the name has generic applications to all species that belong to it. There are other arachnids of course. The harvestman is often regarded as spider; however it is not, but still belongs to the arachnid group. Scorpions also belong to the species of arachnids but they are not spiders in any way. They belong to a completely different species and must not be regarded as spider. Having said that, it is therefore understood why you can't call spiders as arachnids since there are many different species that belong to them. It is just appropriate to call them as "spiders" since that is how they are being called since time immemorial. Calling them in any other way is either inappropriate or would make people awkwardly uncomfortable since they are not used to it. Spiders should remain to be called spiders and that's how it should be. But let's set that aside first and let's focus on the main content of this article which is how the name arachnid came to be.

There are many myths and theories as to how the name arachnids came to be. Actually, there are so many of them that scientists and word origin specialists could no longer trace the real foundations of the name. The name arachnid is just understood the way they are defined now by dictionaries and how they are commonly defined by scientists at present. But there's one myth that stands out among them all. This one is the myth that originated from Greece and which happens to be the most accepted theory of them all so far by many contemporary scientists.

The name arachnid isn't actually arachnid at first, but the word origin was Arachne and this was the name of a person. The story of Arachne isn't actually a happy story, but a rather tragic one. One's tragic disposition could only be compared to how spiders would tragically look like normally. When you learn this Greek myth, you will then be fully be able to understand the extent of how spiders are named the way they are and all the other species that belong to the same genera. You would fully comprehend why arachnids would normally look like that.

You have to understand as well though that the idea of myths is fictional and are most likely non-existent. They exist to give a literary interpretation of things and to explain the things that were not explained before because of the lack of empiricism before as well as the incapacities of the technology and science before to find out the real truth in the things that one would see.

The Myth of Arachne

The story of Arachne traces from a long time before, when Gods and Goddesses still reside at Mt. Olympus - the believed place where gods and goddesses of the Greeks dwell. Arachne just happens to be a mere human being. A mere thread spinner who weaves tapestries and other works of clothe. However she was so pretty that a lot of women in her town envy her. At the height of the praises she gets for her beauty, it got into her head and she became conceited. She bragged so much about her beauty that she dared mock the goddesses in Olympus claiming that she's more beautiful than even the goddesses. Her claims have reached Mt. Olympus and have direly offended the goddesses, especially the goddess Venus. One day the goddess descended down from Mt. Olympus to pay the conceited human Arachne a visit in her tapestry shop. Venus disguised herself as a mere human being in order to conceal her presence from Arachne and to interact with ease and ultimately find out the truth on the woman's brags. Indeed the goddess Venus discovered the apparent unmatched beauty of the human Arachne and what caught the goddess's ire even more is that unravelling truth that the human Arachne was indeed a braggart, constantly bragging about her beauty and upon saying this in the presence of the true goddess of beauty, Venus casted a spell on Arachne and turned her into a creature of the dark. Arachne began to shrink in size so small that she could barely be seen in an immediate naked eye view. Then she suddenly started growing more limbs in her body; two limbs came out from under her arms and other two pairs of limbs in her lower torso, all in all constituting eight limbs. And then the threads she weaves to create tapestries became silk threads that come out from her behind. Venus intentionally did this so that instead of making beautiful tapestries for other people's embellishments she would make tapestries of silk threads for her own dwelling. Arachne became a spider and would forever lurk in the dark in concealment, hiding in plain sight to many people because of how hideous she has become.

Since then, the word Arachne became the word arachnid as we know it right now and it simply refers to any bug-like creatures that possesses eight limbs in total and lurks usually in dark places concealing its presence from humans. These creatures are usually hideous in appearance and would normally catch the fear of a lot of people once they are seen. Scientists have made it a point to base the generic name of these creatures to the myth of Arachne because of the strong semblance in characteristics being portrayed in the story. The words arachnids is perhaps just the evolution of the word as to how it is more conveniently pronounced to some people in the different places in the world and have eventually become the general calling for all creatures of the same sort.

However, even if the myth portrays arachnids as hideous, it's not always necessary that all arachnids in real life would also look the same way. In fact, in a scientific perspective, arachnids are fascinating and beautiful creatures.

More Myth Busters: The Myth About Venomous Spiders

2011-07-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Contrary to what most people thing about spiders, are actually docile creatures or at least most of the spiders are. They are not hostile and aggressive and the only time they do bite humans is when they feel threatened or hurt and that circumstance alone is hard to come by or very rare as they are usually found hanging in the ceiling, barely within human reach. One has to consider the apparent proximity between a person and a spider, before jumping right into the conclusion that spiders can really do harm you. Also, almost all spiders are totally harmless to humans. Most spider species don't have venoms that can seriously harm humans. There are only a single percent out of all the spider species in the world that can pose serious threat to humans because of their very potent venoms. These poisonous spiders usually carry neurotoxin venom which primarily attacks the nervous system of a person, which is also the reason why they are considered dangerous. However, these spiders are barely found wandering in households or in any human dwellings. Most likely they are found in deep jungles or rainforest, far from human interference. Although, there are certain very rare occasions that these poisonous spiders would find their way near to human habitation, these should mostly not bother you at all. Also, there is no spider venom in this world that doesn't have antivenom yet. Unless, of course if there's still a poisonous spider species that isn't discovered yet, then that would really makes things a bit different. But come to think of it, even so a discovery of a new species of poisonous spider is unearthed, that doesn't still change the fact that there is just so few species of spiders that can harm humans, thus making the possibility of contracting the venom from a newly found species of poisonous spiders virtually improbable.

Like what was said earlier, there are only very few species of spiders that are considered truly poisonous to human beings and that they are rarely found wandering in human dwellings (It's a different story if you live deep in a jungle or forest). They are so few that one could actually just identify and enumerate them all; so few, that there are actually just three of them that live on earth.

One of them is the black widow spider. Notorious and famous for its neurotoxins, they are perhaps the most commonly seen poisonous spider in the world. However, their existence itself is built on so many myths and misconceptions. Say for example, the belief that their neurotoxins are inevitably fatal. The truth is, a black widow's venom may be a very potent neurotoxin but it could only become fatal if it results to certain complications, especially if the person has histories of cardiac disorders or diseases. The effects of a black widow spider could immediately be dealt with the initial clinical procedures. It is imperative though to hospitalize the person bitten by a black widow so as not to take the risk at all. It's better to be sure now than to be dead later.

Another is the Sydney funnel web spider, which already have accumulated popularity due to some numbers of reported cases of fatality from its bite. However, a funnel web spider doesn't really target human beings as they prey on smaller creatures they can manage to devour. It is wrong to think that they would deliberately pay you a visit just to bite you contrary to what most people believe they would do.

Perhaps the most notorious and the sole master and supreme ruling species of the entire poisonous spider species in the world is the Brazilian wandering spider or the banana spider as what local people commonly call the spider. This spider holds the title of the most venomous spider in the world according to Guinness world book of records. A .006 milligram dosage of its venom is enough to kill a mouse instantly. And imagine each bite may inject a pack-full of venom; it wouldn't take much to kill a full grown adult. Without doubt, they are indeed poisonous and fatal, however, there are only very few of them in the world and they are endemically exclusive to a specific place in the world (You'd know what the place is by reading again its name). Therefore, the banana spider isn't that much of a threat to anyone at all unless if they all suddenly procreate rapidly, then your house is in danger of a visitation. And no matter how poisonous a wandering spider can be, it still has antivenom. Once administered right away to bitten individual, he will most certainly live to see through the rising of the sun in the next day.

There are other two poisonous spiders though that still is worth to fear but they don't have as much reputation as the three mentioned above. These two spiders are the brown recluse spider, easily recognizable by the brown fiddle shape figure in its back and the redback spider which happens to be a relative spider of the black widow, only that its red markings is on its back and not below of the abdomen. These spiders are feared, not because they can cause fatality, unlike the spiders mentioned above, however they cause severe health complications which makes them apparently dangerous as well.

This is the truth about spiders and the fear of them. The truth is that there's absolutely nothing to fear at all if you just sit around your house's corner, watching TV. Don't worry about getting killed with a bite because there's absolute one in a million chances you'll get bitten with one of those spiders you would really have to worry about. Just as long as you stay put and leave those poor spiders in peace, you would coexist harmoniously with the spiders. Next time you see a spider, just leave them be, they wouldn't be doing anything to you. Trust me when I say, they are more afraid of you than you are to them.

Spider Art Projects

2011-07-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

It might sound too ridiculous for a person with Arachnophobia to believe, but October is a month for spiders, at least in some parts of the world. Many pre-school teachers are even inclined to give activities that would help their students to learn more about spiders and perhaps shake off their fear on these little creatures. The goal of the celebration is to correct the common misunderstanding that we all have about spiders. It is so easy to assume and believe that spiders are nothing but harmful and hairy crawlies; blame that mentality to Hollywood because of their non-stop depiction of spiders as monsters that eat live humans and to people who have Arachnophobia who make up stories to make spiders appear more dangerous than they actually are.

The truth about spiders is that they might have venom but the amount of venom that they can excrete is too little if compared to the venom released by other animals like snakes. Thus, it is safe to say that in select instances when their bite indeed pierces through the skin (majority of the spiders have fangs that cannot penetrate the skin); the venom that they inject into the body is far from being lethal. The most that the venom can do is cause itchiness and reddening, apart from these two, spider bites cannot harm you more.

To help pre-school teachers convey this message to young children, they need to use methods which children can relate to. For example, they let their students do spider-related art projects and get involved in cooking spider-inspired children's food. This article is all about art projects, so if you are curious as to how you are going to teach kids about spiders without frightening them, and then read until the last sentence. Have fun!

Spider-related Art Projects

Children love to use crayons, construction papers and pencils to express themselves. When properly guided, making art projects is a very effective way to get across your points to children.

1. Spider handprints

While many parents might disapprove of the idea of their children having anything to do with spiders (especially if they have Arachnophobia themselves), the teaching of proper spider knowledge during the month of October has become tolerable to most of these parents. During this month, you can actually assign kids to make their own stationery with spiders as the main design. The procedure is simple, simply ask your students or the kids who you are teaching to bring with them a construction paper which measures 7 by 10 inches, or you can provide your students with the paper if you can afford it. You also need to prepare poster paints (poster paint is a good choice because it can be easily washed away by water).

Now, paint each of your students' palms and fingers (except the thumb). You can let the kids pick their favorite color. Once everybody has their palms and finger painted, ask them to press their right palm on the centre of the construction paper, do no forget to instruct them to spread their fingers outward and to not move their palms while they press. Let them count up to five and then ask them to slowly lift-up their palms. Now, ask them to do the same with their left pal, with the palm overlapping the print left by the right palm. The resulting imprint is an 8-legged spider design. To make the "painting" more realistic, let each student cut-out colourful small circles which will serve as the eyes of your spider.

2. Spider Web Painting

This project is quite messy but the fun that kids will have through it will be priceless. So, if you are ready to deal with the mess, prepare sheets of white construction papers measuring 8 inches in each side. Find a suitable stout open box that can contain the paper properly. Ask your students to dip a piece of marble in black paint and let them drop their painted marbles into the open box with the white construction paper resting on the bottom. Let each student tilt his or her open box to make the marble roll over the paper. Make them do circular motions to imitate the shape of a spider web. You can also use white paint and black construction paper, depending on your preference. Once your students are done, let them pull out the marble and ask them to wash their hands while they wait for the paint to dry. Once dry, give each of them a spider sticker to stick on their spider web.

3. Spider Paper Plates

Teach your students how to make fun spider paper plates. The materials needed are: black paint, paper plates, and sheets of construction papers (pre-cut to 1 by 18 inches), a stapler and some staples. Student participate is limited to the painting of the paper plates but when it comes to stapling the construction paper sheets to the paper plate, I think that you should just do it yourself. The construction paper sheets will serve as the legs of the spider. The fun part of this art project is during the testing part where you ask each of your students to line-up and bring with them their plates. You need to have some snacks ready so that the kids get to try using their paper plates.

4. Spider Webs Made from Spaghetti

This project is best for 1st graders because at this stage, kids are already capable of handling things gently and cooked spaghetti has to be handled quite gently in this specific project. Group your students into 4 or 5 and have them sit together in a table. Place a bowl of cooked spaghetti in each table (about a kilogram of spaghetti will be enough for 5 groups) and a small bowl of white glue. Now, ask the students to mix the white glue to the spaghetti bowl as they would do with spaghetti sauce. Let them have some fun mixing the spaghetti with their hands. You can then ask them to pull spaghetti stands and use these strands as "spider silk" to start constructing them own spider web.

Spiders in Ohio

2011-07-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

It is not surprising to know that hundreds of unique spider species can be found in many different countries across the globe. Experts approximate that there are about 500 thousand kinds of spiders all over the world. Of this tremendous number, only 41 thousand have been named and identify. Thus, if you really look into it, you can make a long list of the different spiders that can be found in different habitats whether these habitats are in deserts, waste lands or the tropics. In most cases, spiders are harmless although they might look to be the contrary of that. In Ohio for example, majority of all the spiders found there are completely harmless to humans. If you are in Ohio, you might be interested to identify spiders by yourself. Simply follow the steps provided below to learn how to identify spiders that inhabit in Ohio.

1. If you want to find a crab spider, simply look in your garden (or your neighbour's garden if you don't have your own). These spiders normally stay under flower petals and tree barks. They also like to crawl around fruits so you might as well find them in fruit trees. Crab spiders can adapt to the color of their environment so expect to see a yellowish crab spider under a yellow flower and so on.

2. You will also find it easier to identify a spider by identifying first if it spins a web. In many cases, spinning spiders in Ohio are orb weavers. The most common ones are the humped orb weaver, golden orb weaver and the garden orb weaver. These spiders weave very sticky webs which they use to catch prey. They spin their webs between trees where most of the insects fly.

3. You can also find very small spiders in Ohio. These spiders spin very unusual webs. These webs are very different to the regular webs that we see. These spiders are called Sheet Weaver Spiders and they weave their webs into the shape of a cone composed of several layers. The cone-like web is very effective in catching prey that are bigger that the spiders. These spiders are only a fourth of an inch big so they depend greatly on their webs to catch food for them.

4. Ground spiders are also very common in Ohio. These spiders can be recognized by the appearance of their spinnerets or those "pincers" that they use to weave their webs. Their spinnerets are barrel-shaped and their middle eyes are not circular, instead the eyes are narrow. The color of most ground spiders are black, pink, brown, grey or a combination of these colors.

5. Jumping spiders are quite common in Ohio too, just like wolf spiders are. These spiders prefer to live in shrubbery areas or in forests. However, they can also live in deserts and in a many other types of environments around Ohio and in many parts of the United States. Wolf spiders can be identified by the alignment of their eyes. They have eight eyes like all other spiders by these eyes are set in different rows. This unusual placement of their eyes gives them very excellent vision. These spiders can most easy to identify when they are carrying their eggs. Unlike most spider species, these spiders carry their eggs with them through an egg sac attached to their bodies. Thus, if you see a spider that has an egg sac attached to its body, then there is a high possibility that it is a wolf spider. Moreover, the spider is usually brown in color with orange markings on its back.

Like what has been said earlier in this article, there are so many other spiders in Ohio. The more common ones are already given above, but if you want to know more about the spiders that live in Ohio, you might want to refer to the list below. The list is obtained from the data gathered by the Ohio State University. This list has been published for a couple of times already. The first publication was in 1994. The original list contains 624 species. But for the purposes of this article, we will just list down a portion of this actual number. (Source: http://www.marion.ohio-state.edu)

Antrodiaetidae - The common name for this spider group is Folding Door. There are two spiders in Ohio that belong to this group.

Atypidae - Three spiders have been discovered in Ohio to belong to this group. These spiders are more commonly called as Purse Web.

Ctenizidae - So far, only one spider has been found in Ohio to belong in this group. The common name for this spider is Trap Door.

Agelenidae - More commonly known as Funnel Webbers. Six of these have been found in Ohio.

Amaurobiidae - Even with 10 spiders belonging to this group, Amaurobiidae or Hackledmesh Weavers are still not very common in Ohio.

Anyphaenidae - Also known as Ghost Spiders. There are seven spiders in Ohio that are classified as Ghost Spiders.

Araneidae - The common name for his groups is Orb Weaver and this group ranks as the third largest group with 57 members, it follows after Jumping Spiders with 76 which also follows after Dwarf Weavers with 83.

The other groups are listed below (scientific name first followed by their common names if there is any). Enclosed in the parentheses is the number of spiders belonging to that group.

Clubionidae/Sac spiders (13)
Corinnidae/Ground sac spiders (20)
Ctenidae/Wandering spiders (1)
Cybaeidae (2)
Dictynidae/Meshweb weavers (26)
Dysderidae/Dysderids (1)
Gnaphosidae/Ground spiders (43)
Hahniidae/Hahniids (7)
Erigoninae/Dwarf weavers (83)
Linyphiinae/Sheetweb weavers (46)
Liocranidae (2)
Lycosidae/Wolf spiders (56)
Mimetidae/Pirate spiders (6)
Miturgidae (3)
Mysmenidae/Dwarf cobweb spiders (2)
Nesticidae/Cave cobweb spiders (1)
Oecobiidae/Flatmesh weavers (2)
Oonopidae/Dwarf six-eyed spiders (1)
Oxyopidae/Lynx spiders (2)
Philodromidae/Philodromid crab spiders (16)
Pholcidae/Daddylongleg spiders (3)
Pisauridae/Nursery web spiders (8)
Salticidae/Jumping spiders (76)
Scytodidae/Spitting spiders (1)
Segestriidae/Segestriids (1)
Sicariidae/Six-eyed sicariid spiders (2)
Tengellidae (1)
Tetragnathidae/Long-jawed orbweavers (18)
Theridiidae/Cobweb weavers (56)
Theridiosomatidae/Ray orbweavers (1)
Thomisidae/Typical crab spiders (31)
Titanoecidae (2)
Uloboridae/Hackled orbweavers (3)
Zoridae/Zorids (1)
Zodariidae (1)

Spiders as Pets

2011-07-13T02:56:00.000-07:00

Given the right living conditions, spiders make an excellent pet to boys and men alike. Many spider species are safe around humans thus there is no reason for mothers and wives to panic once the males start to play with these 8-legged creatures. Examples of spiders that are suitable as pets are the tarantulas and the wolf spiders. Just like all other animals and insects that people choose to domesticate, keeping spiders are pets also has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Keeping Spiders as Pets

1. Unlike other pets that require high maintenance, spiders are clean creatures. They would just sit quietly in their respective cages (of course, if they are sufficiently fed).

2. Many pets require vast living spaces. For example, dogs have to roam around to exercise or rabbits have to run to and fro. But spiders do not need all of that space. They are already happy and contented to live in a suitably sized terrarium. Then again, enthusiasts have to make sure that the terrarium can serve an as excellent spider habitat.

3. Since spiders can be kept in glass terrarium, you can actually put them on display. These creatures are incredibly amazing to watch, not to mention that their external appearance is intriguing enough to keep people gazing at them for hours. That's excellent entertainment for visitors in your house. Moreover, spider-watching is also a nice way to unwind after a day's work.

4. Now this one is rather crucial. Spiders do not need socialization. That means that you do not have to touch your pet to make it feel comfortable or secured. You do not have to make it interact with other spiders too. Unlike regular domesticated animals that require too much attention, spiders would not mind being left to attend to itself for as long as you give them enough food.

5. When it comes to expenses, obviously, spiders are cheaper to take care of. You do not have to buy different sorts of products to keep them healthy and beautiful. You do not have to buy them fancy cages, toys or clothes. Spiders live a simple life.

6. Most importantly, you do not have to buy a spider. Of course, if you have money to spare, you can do that. But, essentially, you can get spiders even in your own habitat. You can catch spiders in your garden or inside your house. You can also go spider-hunting in forests and other habitats. As far as the government is concern, it is not illegal to catch spiders in the wild, so you might as well want to use this fact to your advantage.

7. Lastly, just like what the other pets can do, taking care of spiders will help children learn to take on responsibility. Raising another living thing is a big responsibility for most children, but once they get through it, you can be assured that these kids will become better people once they grow up. Moreover, spiders can also spark their interest in animals, nature and in science.

Disadvantages of Keeping Spiders are Pets

1. Almost all spiders can excrete venom no matter how small. Although majority of these spiders cannot excrete enough venom to harm humans, the venom can be sufficient to cause itching, reddening and swelling of the bitten area. However, it might also be good news that most of these spiders do not have fangs which are long enough to inject their venom into the blood system of a person; so technically, the most that these spiders can do is give their human victim a sting.

2. One of the most popular spider pet which is the Tarantula has urticating hairs which they can "fire" whenever they feel threatened. Although Tarantulas are naturally patient with humans, there are cases when because of anxiety or stress they become aggressive and "fire" a couple of their hairs to their owner. The hair can cause serious irritations and when they get into the eyes of their victim, the hairs can even cause significant vision damage. However, this situation can be avoided by handling the pet away from the face and by wearing protective gloves.

3. Although spiders can live in a simple terrarium, select spider species also require a terrarium that has the exact physical condition of their natural habitat. That is, the terrarium has to be of the same temperature, lighting and humidity as their natural habitat. Moreover, pet owners have to make sure too that the spiders get the same nutritional requirements that they get from their natural habitat or else, these spiders might grow weak and die.

4. Spiderman can climb buildings for some reasons, right? Well, Spiderman's abilities are solely based on the abilities of a real spider. Spiders can climb different surfaces and even if the owner keeps his or her spider pets in a glass container, if it is not covered, it is still possible for the spider to escape out of the container. Thus, owners have to always cover the "cage" of the spiders and at the same time make sure that the cover will not deprive the spiders with the right amount of oxygen that they need. Airflow is very important to most spiders and if air is not properly flowing, spiders might just suffocate and die.

5. If the owner decided to take care of spiders other than the Tarantula, he or she has to prepare himself or herself of the possibility of losing his or her pet after a short time. Spiders are short-lived thus if the owner has the tendency to be attached to pets, then he or she should choose a tarantula. According to spider enthusiasts, Tarantulas can live as long as 20 or 30 years even in captivity.

6. Now, just like all other pets, at some point, spiders can also get sick. They are also susceptible to many forms of diseases caused by parasitic or fungal infection. The problem is, too few experts know how to treat spiders. So, the tendency is, once your spider becomes ill, you might as well expect that your spider can die because of the disease.

7. If detachment is a disadvantage for you, you should know that most spiders cannot be handles and caressed like ordinary pets. You have to keep your distance from them pets and content yourself to watching them from behind the glass.

8. You can't easily mate your spider. It is very difficult to cross-breed spiders too so you need to mate your spider with the same species and finding another spider pet owner with the same specie as yours can be daunting.

9. Many insurance companies do not merit spiders as pets, so if ever you got bitten by one, your insurance will be void by virtue of neglect or deliberate interaction with a supposed "dangerous" creature.

Studying Spider Biodiversity

2011-07-13T02:44:00.000-07:00

Like all other creatures the live on earth, spiders are also very interesting research subjects. These arachnids have exploited almost all types of niches throughout the entire planet. Their ability to adapt to their environment and to develop characteristics that will enable them to survive in each of these environments make spiders very useful indicators of the changes experienced by our environment. Thus, studying spiders enable experts and researchers to explore the different concepts of biological diversity on our planet and at the same time, provide useful practical data on the application of these concepts to the steps that we take in conserving environmental biodiversity. People behind these studies usually proceed with their researches in three levels, each increasing in depth as the one before it. These levels are: 1. Sorting and Classifying, 2. Contrasting and 3. Evolutionary Comparison. This article will discuss about the first level in length. However, for levels 2 and 3, all that this article can offer is an overview.

1. Sorting and Classifying

A comprehensive spider study involves different spider subjects or a collection of different spiders. Spiders might be grouped according to the environment that they are found or to different characteristics. In is very important for researchers to develop and effective and efficient way to sort and classify spider collections in order to assess fully if the data is comprehensive enough to make the study rich and realistic.

But how do researchers collect spiders? Oftentimes, the more equipped researchers are the biologists because they are highly trained professionals who know how to handle different types of creatures, including spiders. First, biologists would choose a range for their sampling. So, if the sample range is 100, they would have to find 100 spiders from 100 different trees, if the test environment is a forest. Collected spiders should not be deformed in any way and almost every time, biologists would simply dislodge a live spider to drown in a vial of alcohol. The alcohol will serve as a preservative of the spider's body. Each spider collected will be examined in the laboratory to determine whatever data that the biologist would need from the spider. These spiders are photographed using a microscopic camera and the photos will be compiled along with a detailed description of the spider.

Now that each of the spiders have been identified, the biologist would have to sort these spiders one by one. Normally, biologists sort spider based on their specie but of course, in some cases, biologists may opt to sort them some other way. To get accurate information about the spider, it has to be inspected based on its external characteristics. This task will be easier now because all that the biologists have to sort are the photographs along with their descriptions. This task would have been harder if the biologist have to sort dead spiders. This is also the importance why they have to preserve the spiders, carefully examine them in the laboratory and take clear microscopic shots of their preserved bodies. Biologists use tables and graphs to assist them in classifying spiders based on specie. Examining the spider's genital is often the easiest way to quickly identify which specie a spider belongs to.

Now that the spiders have been classified based on specie, the biologist would have to assign each specie-group with a "friendly name". The name will help the biologist and the other researchers to refer to specie with description names that would easily relate the spider specie into an image in their minds. This is extremely helpful to research groups where there are many people working on the same research.

To be able to know if the collection does represent the real spider diversity in the test environment, the data gathered should meet certain standards. For example, the biologist has to construct a Collector's Curve which plots the cumulative number of spider species versus the number of spider species found in the place. The curve was developed by Colwell and Coddington in 1994. According to the two, sampling cannot stop while the curve is still increasing. Thus, if this happens, it only proves that the sampling is yet incomplete. Furthermore, if the curve flattens out, then all the species have been detected.

The collector's curve is constructed by using random specimen data within the spider collection. The process is rather too technical for a lay person to understand, but to put it simply, each point in the graph shall represent one random sample from the collection. The graph will progress for each sample which has been randomly picked up until the entire plot is completed, that is, all X and Y coordinates have been filled up. The resulting graph would either be flat, steep, slow rising or slow falling. The shape of the curve actually determines the diversity of the spiders in the test environment. Biologists are trained to interpret such graphs to give understandable conclusions to a lay person.

2. Contrasting

The real goal of level 2 is to contrast the diversity of spiders in the test environment with the diversities of the environments where conservation efforts are in place. To do this, biologists will compare the collection that that they have obtained in their test environment with the data that that has been obtained in conserved environments. These data might have been obtained by other biologists and researchers, so the members of the research team also need time to understand the data before it can be compared to theirs. In order to do that, they need to follow mathematical and statistical formulas to establish a common ground. Once the calculations have been completed, researchers will be able to answer questions like "how does the test environment rank among protected environments", "how will the protection be performed” and so much more.

3. Evolutionary Comparison

Now, this level is rather more interesting to an average reasonable person because it explores the distinctiveness of each spider specie from the others based on the spider evolution. That is, biologists will have to consider that at one point in time, spiders belonging to different spider species might have evolved from the same species.

Some Must-Know Stuff about Spiders

2011-07-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

More often than not, the little details and facts about spiders are neglected and set aside because of the fact that a lot of people fear and or dislikes their presence. Most people would immediately then regard spiders to be disgusting creatures that have to be kept away for good or prevented to come in close into any close-human proximities. You can't blame these people though for fearing spiders, the sheer look of spiders, especially if you don't have very appreciating eyes, would immediately make you gross out. And that is why you would immediately go running away from a presence of a spider in front of you. People often really do this and they tend to keep things that way. In worst case scenarios, people develop a much more heightened fear and paranoia over spiders. Such phobia is called "arachnophobia" or the fear of spiders. And this phobia may come with anxiety, compulsions and hysteria and that would definitely not going to be good for anyone.

The truth is, spiders are actually very fascinating creatures of earth and they serve many purposes to the environment. Moreover, it is absolutely not true to think that spiders are gross and disgusting creatures as one could only just marvel with their beauty both inside and out. Spiders even have amazingly bright displays in their bodies. Their features are often colourful and mystifying; something that can be considered as a work of natural art for others. If you are able to learn all these stuff from spiders, you would definitely get rid of your uncalled for fears for them and finally be able to live with them in harmony. This is one of the best ways to get rid of any fears for spiders or not cultivate any sense of fear for them at all.

Here are some data you can read on about spiders so that you may fully appreciate the extent of their beauty, as well as to fully comprehend their nature.

The Purpose of Spiders in the Natural Balance

Spiders aren't just decorations of nature that the entire ecosystem will be able thrive without them. Like all other creatures on earth, big or small, have critical role in keeping the balance in check. Once you take out spiders out of the equation, a lot of creatures will be taken out of the equation and eventually, humans will have to suffer from the domino effect from taking out one creature off the balance.

Spiders are actually invertebrates. That simply means that they don't have any backbones to support their backs. However, they do have an exoskeleton that serves as a framework to their body. Exoskeletons are actually a creature's skeleton, only that it is located in the outside.

Spiders are among of the crucial factors of plant reproduction. Spiders help plants and flowers reproduce and propagate by cross pollinating them. When a spider is on a particular plant or flower, the pollens will attach themselves on the spider's hairy features. These pollens will then be cross pollinated when a spider transfers from one place to another, or transfers from one plant to the next one.

Spiders also serve as very effective decomposers. They actually help degrade dead plants and animals and turning them into immediate nourishment to the soil. In return the nourishments in the soil from the decomposed dead plants and animals will nurture the plants, enabling them to grow and flourish even more, which also consequentially will provide food sources to many creatures, including humans. As you all may very well know, we also feed on plants. You must make it a point to understand that these plants that we feed on would never have been there if not for the tedious decomposition tasks of the spiders.

More about Spiders

Spiders are often misconceived as insects because of their insect-like appearances. However, spiders actually belong to a different group of animals called arachnids. This type of insect-like creatures normally have eight legs and two body parts, contrary to insects which have six legs and three body parts. Their functions as well to the environment make them significantly different to each other. However, there are certain spiders that are an exception to their common natures. Some spiders only have six eyes, like the brown recluse spiders and more or only have a singular body part.

Spiders are actually very many. Not just many even but multitude of them actually thrives in earth and we don't even know the rest of them yet. Out of 30,000 species of spiders, there are still 250,000 more species that are yet to be named and classified. The ongoing research of spiders has been on the pedals for almost over three quarters of a century already and that is still as much as they have discovered. Every other day, new spider species are being discovered and some of them have the most bizarre environmental context and features.

Spiders don't produce offspring through conception but with eggs. They are oviparous creatures, therefore, they lay eggs which contains their younglings which will later on when it hatches, will become spiderlings. Spiderlings are actually little replicas of the adult version of a spider. Sometimes, they are slightly different in color but more or less look the same as their father and mother. Spiders are capable of producing more than a hundred eggs per seating. That's why the spider population on earth is quite a lot.

Spider bites, contrary to what most people would believe to be fatal, are generally not fatal at all. So far there are only two species of spiders that pose fatal threat to a human being and these are the families in which the Sydney funnel web spider and Brazilian wandering spider belongs. A single venomous bite from any these spiders would definitely put you down if not countered with antivenom. The rest of the spider species are tolerably venomous. Even the notorious black widow spider isn't that seriously fatal at all. It can only become fatal if the bite results to a complication with a preceding heart ailment.

Common Spiders Found in Georgia (Part III)

2011-07-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

If you have not read the first two parts of this article series, you might as well want to check on those articles first before you proceed reading this article. Just like the first two article, this article is also about some of the spiders commonly found in Georgia. In the previous articles, we only discussed about the etymology, physical description, habitat, behaviour and venom of the spiders. In this article, we will add another key point of discussion: the web that the spiders make. In the first two parts of this series of articles about the spiders found in Georgia, four types or spiders have already been covered, these are: the crab spiders, cellar spiders, fishing spiders and crevice spiders. In this article, we will talk about the Funnel-web spider and the orb-weaving spider.

1. Funnel-web spider

a. Etymology

Funnel-web spiders got their name from the shape of the webs that they weave. They weave funnel-shaped traps catch their prey. Funnel-web spiders are not only endemic to Georgia, they are also found all over the world. In fact, about 700 known funnel-web spider species are believed to be located in many types of grassland in many parts of the world.

b. Physical Description

Funnel-web spiders have bodies that are relatively oversized. Their bodies are oval-shaped and long with legs that are both narrow and long. Their legs are also hairy. They are able weave funnel-like webs because of the spinnerets located on their abdomens. Moreover, a Funnel-web spider can be identified through the white stripes that decorate the inlays of their black or brown backs.

c. Habitat

These spiders like cool and wet environments. Thus they prefer to live under stones or in holes, even in crevices. Funnel-web spiders are mostly active at night time for the entire year. Furthermore, these spiders are most prevalent in grasslands.

d. Web

Funnel-spiders do not place glue droplets into their webs, thus they are bale to weave funnel-like webs that are not sticky. These webs are intricately woven to have layers of webs that are attached to vegetation. Although it is not sticky, the layers of webs already make it impossible for the prey to break free from the funnel-like trap. The funnel-like web also serves as a lounge for the spider. Somewhere along the side of the funnel is a small opening where the spider can slide through and enter the funnel without difficultly. The spider can feed on its victim inside the funnel-like web and enjoy fresh food. Because of their excellent design, funnel-like webs can remain moist even during the hot days. So, spiders can actually find retreat inside their funnel-like webs when the weather outside becomes too hot.

e. Behaviour

Female Funnel-web spiders are able to lay 100 eggs at a time. All these eggs are securely placed inside an egg sac for protection. After about three weeks, the eggs hatch and the spiderlings will remain close to the egg sac until they become mature enough find their own way. They reach maturity in about 2 years and after that, female funnel-web spiders are able to live for another 10 years while the males can live for another 8.

f. Venom

This spider is one of the rarest spiders that can cause complications to humans. Their bites can transfer their venom which may cause severe redness and swelling of the skin tissues. However, there are anti-venoms which can be used to counter these effects. Nevertheless, just like most spiders, these spiders do not bite on purpose and only does so when offended or threatened.

2. Orb-weaving Spiders

a. Etymology

Garden Orb-weaving spiders got their name from their habits in web-making and from their tendency to prefer living in gardens, fences and other places outdoors. They are scientifically known as the Argiope aurantia. This Latin name comes from the world used to refer to orange trees. Garden orb-weaving spiders are normally orange or yellow colored.

b. Physical Description

The most common garden orb-spider in Georgia is yellow colored. Their bodies are black with yellow patterns on their back. Their legs have two hues: tan and black. Just like all other spiders, female orb-weaving spiders are much larger than their male counterparts. Female orb-weaving spiders measures from 14 to 25 millimetres while the male ones are as small as 5 to 6 millimetres.

c. Habitat

Garden orb-spiders can live in different places but they are most fond of gardens and fields. They also like to hang around garden fences and along roadways where there are vegetation growing. These spiders are not only common in Georgia; these spiders are also common in Southern Canada and in all the other 48 states in the USA.

d. Web

Orb-weavers can build impressively large webs that are exceptional in strength. Their large disk-like webs can catch a lot of insects at night through the sticky circles in the spirals throughout the web. They also weave a unique zigzag pattern the runs down in the middle of their web. For this reason, orb-weaving spiders have also been known as the "writing spiders".

e. Behaviour

Most orb-weaving spiders are active at day time but there are some species which also feed during night time. They do not like being disturbed and whenever they are, they would vibrate their large webs to scare away the disturbance. According to experts, of all the members of the animal kingdom, only the orb-weaving spiders die while they mate. They have two reproductive organs used for mating. The male orb-weaving spider needs to use its first palp (sexual organ) first, before its actual reproductive organ can be used. Upon using the first organ, an irreversible seizure will come upon the male spider, killing it in the process. AS this happens, its other organ will begin to swell and blocks the sexual organ of the female, thus preventing her from mating with other males. Because the male organ has to serve as a "block" over the female's sexual organ, the male spider has to die and the female eats the male in order to take it off her back. After the mating, the female spider can go about its life as if nothing has just happened.

f. Venom

The orb-weaving spider has venom and in rare cases, it will bite humans causing redness and irritation on the skin surface where the bite is located.

Various Common Misconceptions about Spiders

2011-07-09T01:30:00.000-07:00

For a creature so common, it is really amazing how many people often have misconceptions about spiders. There are 42,000 known spider species in the world and experts are even claiming that about 450,000 more are left unnamed and undiscovered and still, despite their vast number, a lot of us still confuse spiders with insects, among some other misconceptions. If you are curious which things you know about spiders are misconceptions and which are real, here is a short list of the most common general misconceptions about spiders:

1. Spiders are nothing but insects.

This is should take the first spot in this list because so many people actually thinks that spiders are indeed insects! We have all been taught in school that spiders are Arachnids and not insects but oftentimes, in our everyday lives, we do not seem to be particular about their difference. How many times have we heard someone day that "spiders feed on OTHER insects", that implies that spiders are insects right? Yet, we let it pass and at the back of our minds we think "well yeah, there's not much of a difference anyway". But actually, insects and spiders are so different in so many ways. Let's just point own 6 differences here: (1) Spiders only have two body parts while insects have three, (2) spiders have four pairs of simple eyes while insects only have two compound eyes, (3) spiders do not have antennae while insects have two, (4) spiders do not have wings while insects have two or four (though some do not have wings), (5) spiders have four pairs of legs while insects only have three and (6) spiders have un-segmented abdomens while insects have segmented abdomens.

2. Spiders have oily feet thus they do not stick on their own webs.

We must have ask others or even ourselves at one point in our lives (whether deliberately or not) why spiders do not stick on their own webs. Many people content themselves with this randomly generated answer: because spiders have oily feet. Of course, this is not true! Spiders simply tiptoe their ways throughout their webs. The entire web has droplets of spheroidal globs which serve as the "glue trap" on their web. When spiders accidentally "step" on one of these droplets, it also experiences the same amount of discomfort that we humans feel whenever we step on a gum. However, flies and other insects caught in the web happen to touch at least 50 of these sticky globs, thus making it quite impossible for them to break free. So, in general, the entire web is not really sticky, but spiders are able to place sticky droplets throughout the web making it effective in catching prey. Well, apart from their ability to tiptoe through their webs, spiders also have very unique tarsal claws. Insects do not have a third tarsal claw in each of its legs. This difference actually makes the spider more mobile in a spider web than all the other creatures.

3. When you say Arachnid, you mean to say Spiders.

While it is true that spiders are a kind of Arachnid, it is not just the spiders that are called Arachnids. In fact, there are eleven orders belonging to class Arachnid. These are: spiders, scorpions, pseudo scorpions, whip scorpions, mites, ticks, harvestmen and solpugids. The defining characteristic of Arachnids is their set of four legs. Thus, this means that not all creatures with eight legs can be automatically classified as spiders.

4. All kinds of spiders weave webs.

The term web is used to refer to spider silk woven to serve as a trap for catching prey. Now, although all spiders produce silk, not all of them weave webs because some of the spiders do not rely on traps to catch their prey, some spiders hunt for their food while some simply wait for their food to come to them. Examples of hunting spiders are: jumping spider, lynx spider, wolf spider, fishing spider and ground spider. Examples of spiders that simply wait for their prey to come to them are: crab spiders and trap door spiders. Nevertheless, although these spiders do not use silk to weave a web, they still use their silk in some other ways. For example, hunting spiders use their silk to build egg sacs and to serve as a dragline where they can traverse to and fro as they chase after their prey.

5. Spiders are so tiny to be able to bite humans.

Well, although in general, spiders do not intend to bite humans, some species are really able to do so when offended. Majority of the spiders have very tiny fangs, so tiny that these fangs will not be able to pierce through human skin. However, some spiders like the brown recluse spider and the crab spider have long fangs about 3 millimetres in length) which are enough to penetrate the human skill. Of course, their bite is not deadly to humans and redness or itching only happens in very rate occasions. Even though the offending spider is venomous, because of their very tiny size relative to humans, it is quite impossible for this venom to cause serious ill effects to humans.

6. Spiders do not really eat their victims; they simply suck out the juice from their victims and leave them dehydrated.

This is a myth. Maybe people are just so fond of the idea of having real life vampires but spiders are not even close to a vampire. Spiders eat and digest their victims. These creatures even have a unique way of digesting their victims. They use their silk to wrap their victims until they suffocate to death. Once dead, they vomit some sort of digestive fluids all over their victim and then begin to chew their victim using their chelicerae (or their jaws). The fluid that they have vomited is enough to "melt" some of the portions of their victim making it easier for them to simply suck the fluid back together with the melted parts of their victim's body. The spider vomits the same digestive fluid again and waits for the rest of their victim's body to melt before they suck the fluids back. They repeat this process until they get full and any remaining food will be wrapped in silk for future needs.

The Ancient Belief of Spiders Bringing Good Luck

2011-07-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

While it is so easy for someone who has Arachnophobia to think of spiders as agents of bad luck, history thinks otherwise. In the early 1900s, spiders are believed to bring good luck and fortune. For this reason, popular greeting cards and post cards sold in this era depict different designs with spider as accents. A book published in 1923 by a famous English author named Elizabeth Villiers even labelled the spiders as a "popular Roman design" which is usually engraved in precious stones used to decorate jewelleries and clothes. It was further stated in Villiers' book that spiders are used to symbolize good trade of metals such as silver and gold. However, Villiers also noted that finding spiders at noon does not signify anything; but if the spider is spotted in the afternoon, the person might as well expect to receive a gift that increases in value depending on how late the gift was received. This belief has been supported by so many literatures written in this era, thus making it quite difficult to fully assess whether this is actually factual or not.

Well, of course, to a lot of professionals and amateur weavers and spinners around the world, spiders have always been thought of as lucky creatures primarily because of their natural skills in weaving. However, outside the spinning and weaving world, the association of spiders to fortune has been a result of the famous San Franciscan Club called The Bohemian Club which was founded in the early 1900s. This club has been known to be a popular place for successful local businessmen. The club symbol consists of a spider and the inscription "weaving spiders come not here"; this is probably the reason why many locals associated spiders with the rich and the famous or in simple words, the fortunate.

Villiers account on spiders bringing luck seemed to be supported by a popular verse written by a German mother during the early 1920s where the spiders are said to bring grief and sorrow when seen in the morning, joy in the afternoon and refreshment and nourishments when seen in the evening. It has been widely believed during this era that killing a spider can bring bad luck. This belief is still common among housewives nowadays. In fact, in many countries, many people still think that killing spiders can cause illnesses and other unexpected bad luck from happening.

Nevertheless, the explanation on The Bohemian Club seems to not be enough to explain why spiders have been related to money and fortune. Another popular explanation involves the spider web and its use to most spiders. According to ancient folks, spider webs can resemble the household of a person and the insects caught in the web are all the good opportunities that come to a household. It was believed that wearing an amulet that bears the symbol of the spider can mimic the same effect and attract money and good fortune into the wearer's household. This belief is quite common amongst the Europeans and the African-Americans. In fact, they have these magnetic lodestones used as necklace pendants. The lodestones are said to draw money into the wearer. In the same way, Mexicans also use horseshoe amulets engraved with spider designs to attract good fortune. Well, whether these amulets are indeed effective or not, only the wearers can tell.

As time progresses, the belief on the luck brought about by spiders slowly diminished. The rapid urbanization of most areas in Europe and United States has resulted to more practical options in attracting good fortune: hard work. However, in such a modern-day set-up, there are still those who remain to believe in the power of spiders to bring good luck. For example a popular computer wizard in United Kingdom was quoted to say that she belongs to a family that still holds on to the power of the black spiders to bring forth good fortune. In fact, she still calls them Money Spiders and she would even attest to the effectiveness of such spiders in drawing money into their households.

While it is still very difficult to trace how the association of spiders to money started, it is definite that this belief has been there since time immemorial. Whether this belief is completely based on hearsay and folklore or to some ancient facts, is still a question that can only be answered through further research and study of the past. For now, we can just all content ourselves with the fact that mankind have always been attached to spiders, in many different ways.

To many countries and cultures, spiders have been greatly associated to gods and goddesses. For example, the Romans and the Greeks has Arachne who happens to be a human so good at weaving that she has caught the wrath of Athena or Minerva. To the Native Americans, there's the Spider-woman goddess of the tribe Pueblo Indians who happens to symbolize good luck for the Pueblo Indians too. Now, it becomes clearer that the relationship between spiders and good luck might have rooted from the close connection of the spiders to the deities from the ancient world who are thought to bring good luck to their devotees. Again, whether this has some factual basis, we cannot really tell without spending enough time to study how the people both from the past and in this present age are actually affected by their beliefs.

Nevertheless, the most probable explanation why the belief on spiders bringing forth good luck has diminished in this generation is the increasing number of people who have developed fear of spiders. For some unknown reasons, over the past century, the number of people who has Arachnophobia has increased. Expert suspect that more and more people have become so afraid of spiders because negative mind conditioning. Spiders have been misrepresented in so many movies and other materials mostly seen by kids as they grow up. As a result, these kids grow up believing that spiders are indeed fearsome creatures and they unconsciously develop severe fear on spiders that eventually becomes Arachnophobia.

Common Spiders Found in Georgia (Part II)

2011-07-09T00:27:00.000-07:00

Two of the most common spiders found in Georgia have already been discussed in length in the first part of this article series. These two spiders are the crab spiders and the cellar spiders. In this article, we will discuss two other spiders, namely: (1) Crevice Spiders and (2) Fishing Spiders. Just like what we have done in the first part of this article series, we will discuss about the etymology, physical description, habitat, behaviour and venom of these spiders.

1. Crevice Spiders

a. Etymology

Crevice spiders got their name from their tendency to weave their webs in crevices or in corners. The more common name of Crevice spiders is Southern House spider and they belong to the family called Flistatidae which comes from the words Fili and stat. Fili means thread in Latin while strat means stabilizing. In short, these spiders belong to the family that stabilizes through spider webs.

b. Physical Description

Like some other spider species, female Crevice spiders are relatively larger than their male counterparts. Female Crevice spiders measure about 13 to 19 millimetres across their bodies while male crevice spider can be as small as 9 to 10 millimetres. Male and female crevice spiders also differ in color; female crevice siders are usually grey or black while males are amber colored. Female crevice spiders have long abdomens. The reproductive organ of the male crevice spider is normally long and slender just like their legs. They also have a brown stripe pattern close to their eyes that extends towards their abdomen resulting to a violin-shaped pattern. Since most people incorporate the violin-like pattern in the abdomen to the brown recluse spider, many male crevice spiders are mistaken as such.

c. Habitat

Crevice spiders already reveal their habitat through their names. They like staying in doorways and in the corners of buildings. They also like staying in window sills, in overhands and in shutters; for as long as the place resembles that a crevice, Crevice spiders would love being in there. These spiders usually stay on the ground because they feed on insects that crawl on the ground. They build flat and tangled webs on the ground to serve this purpose. Nevertheless, many female Crevice spiders are fond of making webs beneath tree barks while many others build their webs on and in many man-made structures like bridges, houses and barns. Crevice spiders produce a unique kind of silk. Under a microscope, their silk would appear curly or woolly. This is because they tangle their webs using their combed feet. They tangle their webs on purpose. Since their webs are weaved on the ground, crevice spiders tangle their webs to increase its effectiveness in catching prey.

d. Behaviour

Crevice spiders prefer to remain on the underside of the webs that they have weaved. Only the female spiders weave their webs. Male crevice spiders simply wander around in search for a female mate. A mated pair usually, a female and male crevice spider often sticks together and still together, they would flee for safety once they sense threat. After mating, female crevice spiders can lay up to 200 eggs all at the same time. She keeps her eggs in a ball made from her silk, this ball measures about 15 millimetres in diameter. Moreover, these spiders are not really particular with cleanliness and neatness. Their nests are usually left un-kept that debris of dead and eaten insects can remain in the web for years.

e. Venom

These spiders do have venom but because they are so tiny, they excrete very little amount of venom. This amount of venom is not enough to harm humans in any way. However, in very rare cases, their bites can cause a little swelling and redness which usually just disappears after a few days.

2. Fishing Spiders

a. Etymology

These spiders prefer to live in swamps and other moist places; this is probably the reason why they are called Fishing spiders. They belong to the spider groups called Thalssius which is divided into two sub-groups called Pisaurinae and Thalassinae. The first group consists of smaller web spiders while the other one consist of the larger Fishing spiders.

b. Physical Description

These spiders are usually associated to water although they are actually terrestrial. Their sizes range from 8 to 30 millimetres. Fishing spiders do not have a definite color but all of them have colors that are closely related to brown. However, all Fishing spiders have lateral stripes which are cream colored. These stripes extend towards their abdomens; the markings also resemble that of a leaf. Fishing spiders hunt for their food and they depend on their excellent eye-sight to catch their prey. In general, male fishing spiders are short-lived (usually just 12-14 months) while female Fishing spiders can live up to 2 years.

c. Habitat

Their name already explains why these spiders are always associated with water. Thus, they live in places where there is water such as swamps and lakes. They also prefer streams and ponds where water is flowing. They are somewhat over protective of their offspring. They lay their eggs in a spider sac and encase the sac with a nursery web. The nursery web is attached to vegetation and spiderlings usually leave the nursery web after a single or two molts.

d. Behaviour

Fishing spiders are amongst the few creatures in the world that can manipulate surface tension and stay afloat on water surfaces. Moreover, these spiders also have lungs that closely resemble that of an amphibian, allowing them to breathe underwater for about 30 minutes. These spiders are natural hunting spiders and they usually feed on flies and other flying insects. Sometimes, they also feed on tadpoles and small fishes.

e. Venom

Just like most spiders, the venom of the Fishing spider is also not harmful to humans. Nevertheless, their fangs are long and sharp enough to pierce through the human skin and inject venom into the body. Of course, the venom is not deadly to humans but it can cause skin infections and other irritations.

Common Spiders Found in Georgia (Part I)

2011-07-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Georgia is the native home place to many of the common spiders found in the Southern regions of the United States of America. Of the thousands of spiders found in these areas, 14 have found their way into the homes of many Georgian residents making them quite popular amongst the people who live there. Two of these spiders will be discussed here while the remaining 12 will be discussed in the other instalments of this article. The articles will cover all the basic information that you would need to know about these spiders: (1) Etymology (how the spiders got their names), (2) Physical description (approximation of their sizes, their colors and their distinguishing marks), (3) Habitat (where these spiders naturally live), (4) Behaviour (the way these spiders move, mate, reproduce, etc.) and (5) Venom (significant facts about the poison that they excrete).

1. Crab Spiders

a. Etymology

Crab spiders got their name from their physical appearance. Although these spiders are really tiny when compared to the actual crab, its physical appearance cannot deny that it does look like a crab. Even its movement is similar to that of a crab; it can only more horizontally or laterally, just like an actual crab.

b. Physical Description

Male Crab spiders are usually smaller than their female counterparts. The body length of the male crab spider is somewhere between 3 and 4 millimetre while the female crab spider can grow as big as 6 to 9 millimetres. These spiders can adapt to the color of their environments. Under normal weather conditions, the color of these spiders can range from white to yellow. These spiders catch their prey through hunting, thus their bodies are designed to be able to do just like that. They have flattened and short bodies with two long front legs.

c. Habitat

Because crab spiders cannot move fast, they rely on stealth to catch their prey. They hide under tree barks or under flower petals to wait for their prey to come. Crap spiders do not use their silk to weave web traps, instead, they prefer to ambush their prey and use their strong venom to immobilize them. Their only use for their silk is for egg protection through egg sacs.

d. Behaviour

Just like a real crab, these spiders can walk side wards, forwards and backwards without difficulty. Within 2 to 4 days, they can slowly change their body colors from plain white to yellow in order to adapt to their surroundings. Their reproductive organs are called palp organ (for males) and epigyne (for females), these two functions just like how a lock and key works. After fertilization, the female crab spider weaves a cocoon to contain the eggs and then puts the cocoon in an egg-sac that is securely made from a folded leaf fully covered in silk. The life of a female crab spider is quite dramatic as it dies soon after her eggs hatch.

e. Venom

It's no brainer why crab spiders depend so much on their venom. Scientists found out that they can produce potent venom that is enough to immobilize insects and other prey that are many times larger than they are. Nevertheless, this venom is still harmless to humans.

2. Cellar Spiders

a. Etymology

Spiders get their names through the various characteristics that make them distinct from all other spiders. For example, the Cellar spider got its name from its unique fondness to the cellars and the other places that closely resemble a cellar.

b. Physical Description

Cellar spiders usually have body lengths that measure anywhere between 2 and 6 millimetres. The first pair of their legs is normally about 5.5 times longer than their bodies. In general, cellar spiders have very small bodies and very skinny, long legs. Like all spiders, they have three more pairs of legs and they also have a pair of fangs called chelicerae. They are usually brown or grey colored.

c. Habitat

These spiders prefer to live in basements, barns, sheds and attics where light is scarce. they build their silk traps in these places and usually depend on the insects caught through these traps. They do not weave their houses and traps to a definite shape or size. They do not care so much about their web that when the time comes when it's no longer sticky enough to catch prey or when food has already become scarce in the location where the web has been built, the Cellar spider will not hesitate to abandon it. Moreover, Cellar spiders are known to leach on other spider's web. It can mimic the appearance of a trapped insect and lure the owner of the web to come close to it, the Cellar spider will then attack the unsuspecting spider and feed on it.

d. Behaviour

Cellar spiders are amongst the relatively few spiders that can find their food through hunting and trapping. As hunters, cellar spiders use their web to stop their prey from moving. They bite their prey and inject them with their venom to completely immobilize or kill them. As web-makers, they use their irregularly shaped webs to catch flying insects; insects caught in their webs will be wrapped in silk and strangled to death. When cellar spiders are threatened, they would vibrate their web in an attempt to scare away whatever it is that is threatening them.

e. Venom

Cellar spiders have tiny yet extremely sharp fangs called chelicerae. Nevertheless, although these fangs are really sharp, these are also too tiny to pierce through human skin, that means that humans are still very safe around these spiders. But to other insects and spiders, these fangs are enough to cause serious lacerations that can give way to for their venom to penetrate into their victim's bodies. They produce neurotoxin venom, which means that the venom that they produce targets the nerves of the victims causing a deadly blow to insects and other spiders.

Read the other parts of this article to find out more about the other 12 spider species commonly found in Gerogia.

To be continued.

How to Identify a Georgian Spider?

2011-07-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

Many of the spiders that live in South America are native to Georgia. Majority of these spiders are harmless although some can excrete poisonous venom that can kill or immobilize small animals, insects and other spider species. Nonetheless, most of these poisonous spiders excrete very little amount of venom, an amount that is not enough to harm humans. If you are not particular with spiders, you might not be able to distinguish between spider species; this article will help you how.

1. To most spiders, their size can automatically reveal which spider specie they belong. Thus, the first thing that you have to take into account is their size. To be able to make the closest approximation to the spider's size, you have to individually assess the spider's body and legs. Some spiders may look really big because of their long legs while some may look small because they have shorter legs, but this information is not enough to say that the spider is indeed small or big.

2. Of course, there are tens of thousands of spiders in the world, but if you are in Georgia, spiders having a body length of about an inch or so can only be one of the following: (1) wolf spider, (2) fishing spider, (3) yellow or black garden spider or (4) orb-weaving spider. If the spider's body length is less than an inch, then steps 3, 4, 5 and 6 will become irrelevant and you would have to proceed to step 7 immediately.

3. Now that you have figured out that the spider is one of the four possible spider species given in step 2, your next step is to measure the spider's leg span. If the span of the spider's leg measures between 2 and 2.5 inches, then the spider should be a garden spider; whether it is a yellow or black gardens spider depends on the markings found close to its head. If the markings are yellow, then the spider is a yellow garden spider; if the markings are black, then the spider is a black garden spider. Be careful with such kinds of spiders because although these spiders are not deadly to humans, they can still excrete neurotoxin venom that can cause minor itching and other skin irritations.

4. If the spider's leg span is more than 2.5 inches but not more than 3 inches then the spider is most likely a fishing spider. Fishing spiders are brown in color with grey markings throughout its body. The grey markings can range from light to dark depending on the habitat of the spider. These spiders do not weave traps or houses; instead, they hunt for their food. They like to hunt somewhere dark and moist. For this reason, many of these spiders are found near swamps and other bodies of waters. Their bites can cause necrosis around the skin surface where the bite is located. Furthermore, the bitten area will develop minor redness and itching.

5. If the spider's leg span is less than 2 inches but not below 1.5 inches, then the spider is an orb-weaving spider. Such spiders have very rounded bodies and are usually bright colored. They do not have the same colors but all of them come in a variety of bright colors which are often attractive to the eye. They can weave huge silk traps that can range up to 6 feet in diameter or almost 70 times larger than their own bodies. These spiders fee on insects that get trap on their silk traps and are entirely non-toxic to humans.

6. When the spider is brown colored with a black or grey colored cross design on its back and a leg span that measures about 2 inches in length, then the spider is definitely a wolf spider. These spiders still weave webs but they are not really associated with webs because they are hunting spiders. These spiders can excrete weak venom that is enough to paralyze or kill their prey. They do not really intend to bite humans, but in the event that they did, their bites cannot cause any serious health problems. Their bites can simply cause itching and redness.

7. For a spider having a body length of less than an inch, you wouldn't have to measure its leg span anymore. These spiders are much easier to identify than the larger spiders because small spiders in Georgia have unique physical appearances. The spider could be a trapdoor spider, a black widow spider, a cellar spider, a brown recluse spider or a jumping spider. Each of these spiders can be identified by their color and shape.

8. For example, if the spider has really long legs relative to its body size, almost immediately, you can identify that the spider is a cellar spider. Cellar spiders are usually found in damp and dark areas like the Fishing spider. These spiders are too small to cause harm to humans. In fact, they can't even pierce the human skin to cause at least the slightest wound.

9. Brown recluse spiders can be identified through the violin-shaped design on its back. These spiders are usually brown colored and are aggressive. They have very poisonous venom that can cause quite a sting to humans. Unfortunately, these spiders prefer to hide in soft places, so if ever they happen to lost their way home and go straight to your house instead, they will most likely hide in places where you keep your beddings, pillows and clothes. These spiders are not lethal to humans, but it is still better if we avoid them.

10. Trapdoor spiders reveal their identities through the V-shape marking found on its back. These spiders are black colored and are usually found in a burrow. These spiders are very safe to humans.

11. Jumping spiders got their name from their ability to jump around. If the spider you have spotted is black colored having white markings visible on its back and if the spider jumps around, then that spider is definitely a Bold Jumping spider. The bites of such spiders can hurt but are not dangerous enough to be considered harmful.

Different Applications of the Spider's Venom

2011-07-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Of the 40,000 plus known spider species today, less than 500 have been cleared from venom, the rest are considered to be venomous and dangerous to most insects, small animals and to the other spiders themselves. Fortunately, only four spider groups have been identified to produce venom that is lethal to the human body and the amount of venom that these spiders can inflict to their human victims is not even enough to cause serious health problems. Nevertheless, this fact does not make spiders any less significant. In fact, thousands of scientists have already spent their lifetimes just to study these tiny, little creatures. This keen interest to spiders has given us, humans, insights as to how we can take advantage of spiders, most specifically their silk and their venom.

To date, scientists have already made significant advancements in the development of a fibre that closely resembles that of a spider's silk. Although we have not really replicated the actual silk produced by spiders, we have done as much as producing a synthetic fibre that can be produced using plants. Moreover, we have also succeeded in extracting spider silk from spiders without harming them. The spider venom has also become a great deal to a lot of scientists too. Many of the brilliants of this generation have dedicated their laboratories for the sole purpose of studying spider venoms and their possible use to mankind.

Because of their size and the amount of venom that they can produce, it is quite arduous for scientists to study spider venoms. To make their researches systematic, they need to apply either of the following strategies: (1) scientists can wait for the spiders to naturally excrete their venom through their glands or (2) scientists will have to artificially break down the venom excreted by the spider and find out for themselves how these venom are excreted. To execute the first strategy, scientists have to stimulate their spider subjects through light electrical shocks. Under normal circumstances, spiders would release their venom within 24 hours. This venom contains traces of the spider's genetic fragments. Through these fragments, scientists will be able to re-create the overall genetic make-up of the venom. These samples will then be used to assess whatever medical application on which the venom might be proven useful.

The second strategy involves the meticulous work of separating the individual components found in an artificially broken down venom sample. Each of the ingredients making up the venom sample will then be compared to the molecular data of all the spider venoms studied in the past. Although this method appears to be easier than the previous one, this method is actually a lot more difficult to execute than the first one because the current spider data database that is existent is still scarce of data. Moreover, each spider venom sample may have at least 4000 distinct ingredients or components which would take years for a scientist to individually compare to an incomplete raw data.

Apart from the actual study of the venoms, scientists also bother to record every detail that they find out into the ever evolving spider history database of all the spider species known to mankind to date. The scientists are convinced that is plotting out an evolution tree of spiders will help mankind someday. While the goal of this arduous endeavour is still not completely grasp, scientists are quite convicted to whatever reasons that they have for doing such a thing.

Scientists have already identified three major applications of the spider's venom, these are: (1) As pesticides, (2) as a preventive drug for Atrial Fibrillation and (3) brain damage prevention. In all three applications, scientists have not yet developed a way to mass-produce venom-based products. While they are already able to harness venom from spiders without harming them, they are still not able to extract enough venom to merit an industry-scale application. For this reason, the use of venom in all three applications is still limited laboratory and private usage.

Nevertheless, the facts that we know about spiders is enough to help us realize that spiders play an important role in mankind's existence. It may not be today, but a time will come when we will be able to fully grasp the extent of this help and completely appreciate these creatures to what they are and to what they can do for us. From the silk that they produce to the venom that they excrete, all these natural by-products of spiders have been consistently found to be excellent addition to whatever breakthroughs that we humans have already achieved. Even their simple eating habits have greatly helped us too (insect and disease control).

Now that spiders are slowly making it big in the medical industry, all that we can do is to wait for our own experts to finally uncover everything that these spiders have to offer. Those with Arachnophobia might as well want to stand close and see for themselves what they object of fear can do, and then maybe they will realize that spiders are not that fearsome after all. Nobody is telling anybody that spiders should be loved instead of being loathed, what is simply emphasized here is that our attitude towards spiders should be based on what they think is right for them (with all the factors considered). That is, if ever you spot a spider in your house, do not freak out and immediately consider spider extermination on the spot. Many experts agree that exterminating spiders is not really necessary.

In most of the cases, spiders just have to be captured and set free outside your house. There are many ways to capture a spider without harming them, if you have no idea how, simply make a little research about it or look for useful articles down there in my archive. If you have Arachnophobia (if you just killed a spider, you can't pretend that you have Arachnophobia because if you really do, you will not be able to do so), ask a friend to catch and free the spider for you.

Spider Trivia

2011-06-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Most of people know the fact that spiders are hairy and scary and we more often than not avoid them of their scary features. Admittedly, spiders are intimidating. They lurk in dark corners and places building their webs and waiting for their prey and it would be quite a surprise if you suddenly find one in your drawer. However, spiders aren't creatures that you should be scared of. Of course there are those certain spider species that you have to be bothered about. But spiders are actually generally harmless to all human beings. The misconception that a spider bite could instantly be fatal to anyone is terribly a misunderstanding on the spider's part and this has got to go. The truth about spider bites is that they only take place when the spider is threatened and or pressed against its skin. Naturally if the spider is hurt, it will bite as an act of defence mechanism. Therefore, it is upon your prerogative to make sure that you don't accidentally or unwittingly crush a spider to make it a point that you don't get bitten at all. You will eventually do less in fearing them and finally make peace with your fears on them.

Spiders are indeed amazing creatures. You may only discover that if you try to look at their species a little deeper than just considering them as house pests. Spiders have been hosts to many different wonders of earth and you will be surprised to know how magnificent these creatures are. Here are some amazingly true facts about spiders:

• Spiders with hairs actually belong to the mammalian classification. Since they are mammals, these spiders are capable of produce unique tasting milk (actually delicious?). The milk is produced in the same glands that are used to create silk threads.

• In physics, a single strand of silk thread in a spider's web actually has more potential energy than the a-bomb dropped in Nagasaki in World War 2. That simply means, if the potential energy in a single silk thread is converted into a usable energy source through fusion, it may potentially wipe-out more than just Nagasaki. Fortunately, spiders don't live in ultra high fusion areas, so we all need not to worry about the possibilities of Armageddon too much.

• In biology, a spider's egg can possibly contain DNA as many as four human beings combined. That's only for one egg. If we talk about the entire egg sac which happens to have hundred of eggs in it, we could be quantitavely equating them to the entire population in India or China.

• Here's a spooker! Did you know spiders can actually live almost forever, if ever such a time frame existed? This is because spiders cannot die in physical causes. That means they don't die out of getting old or aging. If left in unharmed and unscathed condition, a spider may live theoretically as long as it can and could grow as big as it can. In fact there is actually a collection in China of some allegedly "holy" spiders that were already hatched for about 2,800 years ago.

• Did you know that a carapace of a spider (exoskeleton, or outer shell) is strong enough to withstand a nuclear blast? If the carapace is sufficiently scaled, can potentially be stronger than a lead nuclear bunker.

• Did you know there is actually a spider that is worth a fortune? The Kenyan Applecrosser spider species are not only bought for domestication but as well as a high end accessory. They are actually grown with special stones or emeralds in their abdomen. They are perhaps the most valuable spiders in the whole world.

• There is an extremely rare spider species in Eastern African called the Snow spiders. The reason why it’s called a "snow" spider is because of its color, which of course is white. But what's even more amazing about these spider species is that they produce black silk threads.

• Spiders are actually, relatively very powerful creatures and could withstand strong levels of atmospheric pressures. If you are to place a spider to create a web in a vacuum tube, it can most definitely can. Scientists have even discovered certain spider species working both high altitude areas to extremely below sea level places constructing webs.

• The reasons why certain spiders are capable of an apparent flight is because of their capability to produce wind-sailings silks or "parachutes" that enables to fly over the world beneath them. Windcurrent spiders have actually lived for millennia creating webs in the air in extremely high altitudes. They get most of their nutrients from sunlight processing them through semi-photosynthesis mechanism.

• The largest spider in the world ever observed would almost over eight feet long across and weighed about 530 lbs. That's heavier than 3 regular weight human beings combined. However, the spider was too big that it no longer moves. It broke its legs one time because it can no longer carry its own weight.

• Did you know that Orange Magma Spider is capable of withstanding very high levels of heat, as much 5,300 degrees Fahrenheit? However, ironically, these spiders can only be found in South Pole's largest ice glaciers.

• In the field of conventional psychology, in dream interpretations, spiders represent the most dangerous concepts of human subconscious. It symbolizes the eleven stages of grief (eight legs, two antennae, and torso).

• If a Harjack Spider is motivated enough in severe reasons, it can actually produce an amount of silk that can suffocate a human baby in just a matter of a few minutes.

• Did you know that according to neurological researches conducted in Harvard, they have discovered that a spider's brain has more mental capacity than the world's brightest scientists? If their brains have cognitive lobe, they would have found all the answers to the world's questions.

• Did you know that spiders are actually mostly homosexuals? The evolution of spider has been espoused with a population control mechanism. That is why there are more males than females and the same reasons why there is propensity for females to devour their male partners after mating.

Australian Venomous Spiders (Part II)

2011-06-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

In the previous article we have talked about the Redback spider as part of the most venomous species of spider found in the Australian continent. This time we will talk about the other spider species that are still found in Australia, that at the same time, you should be very careful with as well.

Unlike the redback spider, these other spiders that will be later mentioned in this article are far more dangerous in terms of looks and in terms of their venom potency that there are already even reported cases of human fatality caused by their bites. Therefore, extra prudence and appropriate precautions should be taken into consideration once you come across or encounter spiders of these species.

Like as what has been always reiterated in any discussions that talk about poisonous spiders, the best way to prevent the catastrophe that might happen in the event of an encounter with a poisonous or highly venomous spider is the preparedness you have when it comes to dealing with them. Preparedness can only come if you are properly informed about the encounter at the first place. That's why there is an utter need for you to know first the species of spiders to avoid and eventually you will then know how to avoid them effectively.

Here is another list of some of the most venomous spiders in Australia, and perhaps among the most venomous in the world as well.

The Funnel Web Spider

Actually, there are a lot of funnel web spider species in the planet and there are 38 known species in Australia alone. The Sydney funnel-web spider is just one of the many species that live in Australia and they are by far as well the most poisonous or venomous funnel web species in the planet. If ranked along-side with the other venomous spiders in the planet like the Brazilian wandering spider which are endemically found in brazil and the American black widow spider, the Sydney funnel web spider would have ranked second venomous, next to the Brazilian wandering spider. Sydney funnel web spiders, like all funnel web spiders would prefer living in certain cool places or habitats. They are commonly found in the south eastern regions of Australia, particularly in Sydney as well. These funnel web spiders prefer to dig holes out so that they can live in there and covering themselves with layers of funnel web structures. The web structures they create serves as a protection against intruders and a tool for the spider's feeding. The funnel web spider would immediately know if there's an intrusion by another insect taking place through the vibrations that travel through the silk threads of the web. In the same manner, these vibrations are also indictor if a prey is ensnared within the trap. The ingenious engineering of the funnel webs are indeed a work of art by nature through the spiders. It's a complete accessory to the species, in both shelter and resources level. The Australian funnel web spider would burrow themselves in certain silk demarcated burrows and live there until a prey may come right passing through.

In order to identify a dwelling of a Sydney funnel web spider, you must first pay close attention to the burrow where it is thought to have originated. Certain tripe lines would normally radiate from the entrance of the burrow to the deep ends of it.

This type of funnel web spider is typically found in about 160 kms radius from Sydney. However, there are reports that the Sydney spiders were allegedly spotted far from its demarcated radius limit.

Funnel web spiders are actually related with the family of Wolf spiders that's why they are normally large in size. Their size would range from 3-4.5 cm depending on the age and the growth of the spider in itself. Funnel web spiders are black in color, quite aggressive, and actually have very strong fangs that it they won't just poison you once you get bitten, it will also deliver quite an amount of pain and groans. The male funnel web spider is more dangerous than its female counterparts. The reason why it is so is because male spiders are the ones that normally transfer from one place to another in order to find their right mates. Because they transfer a lot in order to find a spider mate for reproduction, the funnel web spider are also able to pass by in human residences or people's houses and they could definitely become a reason for an alarm for the entire institution. Summer and autumn are their most conducive seasons in searching for their mates.

Why are they Dangerous?

While it has been said that generally spiders are harmless to humans, these are just one of certain few species that don't belong to the genera of genuinely harmless spiders because Sydney funnel web spiders are truly potently venomous that they can confine its victim to the hospital. That is how venomous a funnel web spider can be.

If ever you get bitten by dangerous Sydney funnel web spider, it is definitely something that you should not condone because once it is left untreated; the patient would have died already because of what Sydney funnel web spider would inject after the bite. The venom induction would entail certain symptoms like vomiting, abdominal pain, muscular numbness and many more. It would be wise to consult a physicians help right away to ensure that you are safe from the spiders fatal venom blow. Fortunately there is already antivenom invented to counter the effects of the Sydney funnel web spider. And ever since the antivenom was invented, there had been already a few casualties, even fatalities that are related with the spider bite. The gradual decrease has statistically reached .05 casualties from the funnel web spider bite in each three years. The antivenom that could counter the effect of the funnel web spider venoms was invented in the year 1984, and ever since then there had been only a few reported casualties of human casualties already.

Australian Venomous Spiders (Part I)

2011-06-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

One thing you have to understand about spiders is that certain species of them can only exist in specific areas in the globe. That means, there are certain species of spiders that can never find their way inside your house, unless imported deliberately. In other words, you don't have to worry finding a Brazilian wandering spider inside your closet if you know you live in New York; a black widow perhaps, but not a wandering spider. As the name suggests, it can't be found near you. If you are able to understand this concept fully, you never have to worry anymore about the common misconceptions of finding venomous spiders wandering inside your house. Apart from the fact that specific venomous species of spiders can only be found exclusively in certain areas in the planet, generally, most of the spiders aren't poisonous at all.

Knowing what places spiders are endemic, would really help you out in dealing with certain fears you have for spiders as well being too over concerned about the possibility of venomous spiders inhabiting your house.

In this article we will be discussing spiders that can be naturally found in Australia. If you are someone who happens to live in Australia, the information on this page will really be of good help you. It will make it easier for you to identify certain spider species that can be tolerated if found inside your house, thus making you less fearful about them, and what certain species of Australian spiders you should be wary of and make sure to avoid provoking and coming in contact with it as possible.

In Australia alone, there are thousands of species of spiders that inhabit the area and you can almost potentially find any of the species knocking right at your doorstep. Each species may carry different sorts or varieties of consequences to your house. It could be that they could mess up your house's interior fashion statement with massive orb webs hanging all around the place or they might actually envenom you with highly potent poisons which could potentially lead to your confinement in the hospital. The worst case scenario would be that they might cause for you to end up six feet under the ground. That just not good at all in any way, unless if you have decided to deliver yourself a sudden but painful death.

Therefore, after having said that stuff about Australian spiders, it would be totally natural for you to take the initiative to know the species of spiders that live nearby your home in order for you to successfully prevent them from ever entering your house, and knowing what exactly to do in the time when a venomous bite happens. You have to be thoroughly careful though in accurately identifying the specie of spider you are currently witnessing. There are certain species of Australian spiders that look almost the same as the other. Here are some types of poisonous to non-venomous spiders that inhabit Australia and some descriptions of them for to be able to effectively discern each one of them in case there is a possibility of encounter.

The Red Back Spider

The Red back spider is actually very common in Australia. In fact there are certain species of deer that are named after them just because they seem to have certain similar physical attributes. At least they look alike relatively. There are also beverages sold in Australia that are named after the spider, practically containing the same insignias as the one found in the back of the redback spider.

Actually redback spiders are found just right about everywhere in Australia. That means you do not only expect to find them inside rainforests or out in the wilderness, but also in some places of your house. Redback spiders are actually more probably to inhabit in highly urbanized areas which happens to have dense population in them. They seem to perceive that there is sufficient food source in the area. Also because redback spiders prefer congested and warm environments and what could be warmer than staying near human population congestion.

The Australian redback spiders are actually related to the American black widows. They even look highly similar in terms of physical structure and appearance, with the exemption of their body markings. The black widow spider has its hourglass-shaped marking under its abdomen, while the distinctive red marking of a redback spider is found at the back, as the name would suggest.

However, the major considerable difference between an Australian redback spider and its relative the black widow is that the former isn't as potently venomous as the latter. Often, if you go to a clinic and tell the doctor you just got bitten by a redback spider; the doctor would just probably tell to go home and simply place an ice on the bitten part.

Still you can't just be too overconfident about the bite of a redback spiders, as they are related to the infamous and notoriously reputed black widow spiders, their neurotoxins are also in some way similar, only that it is less potent. In two out of ten chances that you get bitten by a redback spider, you will develop in to experiencing the symptoms of being envenomed by spider poison. If the symptoms would later on develop, it's just highly imperative to immediately consult a physician and to have yourself, fully medically examined.

The possible symptoms of a redback spider bite would range depending on the potency of the venom injected upon the bite. Mostly redback spider bite symptoms are just mere rashes, itching and irritation near the bitten part. But the severe symptoms like profuse sweating, nausea, muscle pains, lack of energy or laxness, difficulty breathing and nausea, would truly need more serious medical attention. It's the only the female of the redback spider species that you should fear of as they are the only one capable of aggression and envenoming you potent enough to make you suffer from hellish symptoms of the venom.

To be continued...

Busting 3 Big Myths about Spiders

2011-06-29T00:59:00.000-07:00

While it is too easy to be afraid of spiders because of their googly eyes, hairy bodies and freaky legs, majority of the fearsome things we know about spiders are actually nothing more than myths. However, since it is so easy to capitalize on Arachnophobia, a lot of people do not really care enough to help spiders clear their names. Instead, many of us would exaggerate spider encounters to make a good enough story out of it. More than often not, many of those who make such exaggerations are simply afraid of spiders so they do not realize that they are already making the stories worse than they actually are. Experts even say that spiders that lurk in homes do not have to be controlled or killed because they do not cause any trouble anyway.

In fact, spiders are really very helpful creatures. For example, the Vampire spider feeds on mosquitoes that spread malaria and dengue. Other spiders also feed on flies and other insects that can spread all sorts of diseases and illnesses. But, for the sake of those arachnids which cannot defend themselves, let bust some of the most common myths about spiders.

Myth #1: Just like how movies depict them, Tarantulas are really dangerous and deadly to human being.

Fact:

Perhaps, the only real contribution of the Tarantulas to this bad reputation is their comfort with being handled and their being photogenic. Whenever Hollywood needs a spider to blow-up into a giant monster or creepy crawlies to serve as obstacles in an adventure film, those who are in-charge of the side-effects will not think of other spiders apart from the Tarantulas. These spiders are perfect for a television or movie role because they are so easy to handle and they are extremely safe for the actors and the actresses to work with. Their furry appearance also contributes to the "horror" effect of the spider characterized in the film, thus giving more impact to the scene.

However, beyond all these things, Tarantulas are actually very safe spiders. In fact, many spider lovers choose Tarantulas as pets because of their inherent tamed nature. While it is true that these spiders are venomous, the toxicity level of the venom that they produce is really not harmful to humans. The venom may immobilize other spiders, insects and very small animals, but humans have a very high threshold for poison that a Tarantula bite won't even be noticed after the initial sting felt after their fangs pierce the skin.

Nonetheless, because these spiders are hairy, Tarantula handlers may still experience skin rashes around their eyes and nose area if they handled the Tarantulas too close to their faces. But incidents as such can be easily avoided by regular washing of the hands after handling Tarantulas (well, the same is true with all other pets like dogs and cats, right?). Overall, if we compare the dangers associated to keeping Tarantulas as pets to the possible dangers of having a pet dog at home, Tarantulas would definitely turn out to be better than dogs, just saying.

Myth # 2: Pregnant spiders intentionally bite humans to lay their eggs under the wounds left by their bites.

Fact:

This myth has actually caused so many people to freak out at the very moment they find out that they have been bitten by a spider. Frankly speaking, majority of the spiders that happen to bite humans (by accident) are non-toxic to us and probably, because many people are already acknowledging this fact, those who are desperate to make spiders look really scary spread this urban legend. Allegedly, some random woman who was on vacation got bitten by a spider on her cheek and after a few days, tiny spiders emerged from the wound left by the bite which apparently was swelling so much right after the incident. While this incident almost seemed like a scene from a horror film, quite surprisingly, many people believed it! However, the truth is that spider eggs barely thrives in an environment where it is not protected by a silk sac weaved by the female spider, let alone under human skin which is very expose to disturbance. More importantly, spiders avoid humans as much as possible thus this event is impossible to happen. It is still a big question why this urban legend continues to spread like wildfire no matter how many time authorities clear spiders on this issue.

Myth #3: Non-venomous spiders are equally dangerous as the venomous ones because they can still cause infections through the germs that they carry on their fangs.

Fact:

This myth has been around for quite some time already but until this time, no documented case related to such has been made yet. Of course, to help spiders clear their names, scientists from Brazil conducted a series of experiments on different kinds of spiders and found out that about 36% of all the test spiders are found to have pathogens and bacteria surrounding their fangs. Nevertheless, it was also concluded that the pathogens and bacteria are sterile and will not affect humans in any way. These pathogens and bacteria might be sufficient to cause damages to small animals, insects and other spiders on which these spiders feed on, but to humans, they are harmless.

Conclusion

Well, so much have been said about spiders and for so long, spiders have just quietly taken the blame for almost everything nasty about having googly eyes and four pairs of legs. However, myth busters like the three given above continue to prove that spiders are just misunderstood creatures, often hated by people because hating is more convenient than actually looking deeper into their real characteristics. While we cannot change how majority of the people around the world looks at spiders, we can actually change our own personal views about them! By knowing that the most common type of phobia is Arachnophobia or the fear of Spiders, we can easily position ourselves somewhere we can help deliver a greater impact in changing how the world views spiders today.

The Curious Case of the Vampire Spider

2011-06-28T03:36:00.000-07:00

Funny, how their name is closely associated to Count Dracula and Edward Cullen, but Vampire spiders do not really harm humans by sucking their blood. Instead, Vampire Spiders feed on the mosquitoes that feed on human blood. This appetite for mosquitoes that have human blood in their system makes them a third party vampire. Of course, since mosquitoes do not only feed on human blood but also on animal blood, Vampire spiders do not just have appetite for human blood but to each and every kind of blood from which their prey feeds on.

Vampire Spider Overview

The scientific name for Vampire spider is Eresus lamiae. These spiders belong to the arachnid family called Eresidae and are closely related to Velvet Spiders mostly found in the caves somewhere in Mongolia. These spiders reached the United States sometime in the late 1900s. It was suspected that they have reached foreign lands through the products traded from Mongolia such as cashmere.

In their natural habitats (that's not your house but in caves), they feed on small cave creatures like mosquitoes that feed on animals inhabiting the caves. When it reached the United States, probably because of the nature by which they are brought it, houses became their normal habitats. They are frequently spotted in bedrooms and in sock drawers. Many experts suggest that their inclination to lurk in sock drawers and inside shoes is due to their attraction to the smell of the human feet.

What about their attraction towards the human foot?

Vampire spiders are able to locate their prey by first locating where their prey feeds on. In the case of the female mosquitoes that feed on warm blooded animals like humans, Vampire spiders would locate the very part of the human body where mosquitoes are highly inclined to bite: the foot. They cannot pierce or bite the human skin, so they simply wait around somewhere close to the human foot. Many people would freak out at the very thought of having a spider by their foot but the simple truth is that these spiders do not really harm humans, in fact, they can be considered out allies because they feed on the insects that bring serious diseases like malaria and dengue. Vampire spiders are really safe around humans that even in the event that they accidentally bite humans, they will not cause any serious harm except for the bite marks that might appear after the incident. They do not have venom too.

Vampire Spiders as Human Allies

Apart from the Eresus lamiae, another Vampire spider specie has been discovered in Kenya some time in 2003. The spider was called Evarcha culicivora. This spider has characteristics that are closely related to the Eresus lamiae specie. First, both these species target mosquitoes that are malarial and those mosquitoes that can carry the disease called malaria. They find these mosquitoes more appetizing when they have just bloated their bellies with human blood because for the real essence of their names, Vampire spiders do love blood, although they cannot get it themselves. These spiders are able to recognize a well-fed mosquito from those which are not because of their appearance and smell.

Blood for Sex

This one is not intended for kids to read, so if you are below 18, just skip this part. In 2009, scientists found out that human blood also serves as an aphrodisiac to spiders. After having their fill of the blood, these spiders become so hyped up for sex that they would immediately look for a mate to release their need for sexual pleasure. Moreover, it was also found out that Vampire spiders that have just eaten mosquitoes retain the smell of the human blood. This smell makes them very irresisible to other spiders of the opposite sex. Thus, it can be said that feeding on human blood ensures the continued survival of their specie.

What's with human blood anyway?

Well, there should be a reason why Vampires love the human blood, right? Today, scientists speculate that this special liking for human blood might be due to the fact that the blood is just like a protein-rich red shake that is filled with so much nutrients. Because it is in a liquid form, it is so easy to digest and since Vampires are supposed to have little or no metabolic activity inside them (that's fictitious, right?), it is the perfect meal for them. In reality, vampire spiders prefer a prey that feeds on human blood because of the same reason. They need to spend minimum energy on food processing and the blood is the best type of food for them to be able to do so.

Vampire spiders are tested to verify this notion. So, scientist prepared groups of mosquitoes that are to be fed to the Vampire spiders. The groups are: (1) male mosquitoes that do not feed on blood, (2) female mosquitoes that feed on sugar juices extracted from fruits and flowers and (3) female mosquitoes that feed on human blood. Even without the use of any device, they were able to observe almost immediately that the Vampire spiders are more responsive to the female mosquitoes that feed on human blood. Moreover, the Vampire spiders are then exposed to female mosquitoes that have just fed on human blood and to those that are still hungry. The scientists are able to verify that the Vampire spiders would go after those that have drunk human blood already.

Conclusion

Well, spiders actually differ from each other in so many different ways. Many of the spiders have been proven to be harmless to humans and now, through the curious case of the Vampire spiders, we are actually able to find out that spiders are also very beneficial to humans. This should be left as a point for Arachnophobic individuals to ponder upon. Spiders may look really creepy because of their hair and the many eyes that they have. But if we care to look a little bit closer, we will see that they are also very lovable creatures (finally, I have understood Hagrid!).

Overcoming Fear of Spiders Without Professional Help

2011-06-28T03:26:00.000-07:00

While most arachnophobic people would need some medical attention to treat their condition, it doesn't necessarily mean as well that the condition can never be cured by your own. There are things that you can do in order to get rid of arachnophobia for good. But these methods are more often self oriented than process oriented. Meaning, the success of the treatment process solely depends on the patient’s determination and willingness to get rid of his or her fear once and for all. If the patient will fail at some point in the entire process, the process is doomed to fail. Rest assured though, the steps of the process are highly doable and anyone who happens to have arachnophobia may definitely vie for these methods.

Brief Background

Just a brief background run on what arachnophobia is. Arachnophobia is simply the spider phobia. A person, who happens to have arachnophobia, may dread to see a spider in any proximity and condition. Sometimes, an arachnophobic person would begin panicking even if the presence of a spider is just meters away from the person itself. The presence alone could already incite fear in the person thus causing him to indulge into a sense of anxiety. Some arachnophobic individuals undergo through the development of a compulsion, wherein from time to time, they perform ritualistic behaviors just to get rid of their fear or mitigate it in any way possible. An arachnophobic person may also dread the idea of a spider presence in any where that has the possibility of spider habitation. Say for example, getting inside an old room may provoke the arachnophobic person, even if the presence of spiders isn't actually visually seen. The idea alone is strong enough to make the person fear the possibility of encountering a spider any time soon.

People with arachnophobia may oftentimes become quite unproductive and sometimes debilitating to himself and to his daily activities. Office personnel who happen to have arachnophobia may fear getting in some dusty forfeited rooms or corners, and would not get inside them even if they were ordered by someone superior. Of course, the situations would be relatively different from case to case basis, but essentially, arachnophobic people have a lot of deterrence in their productivity and thus impairing their very optimal potentials. Also, there is a possibility of irrational self seclusion that may follow after the fear. It may or may not be a form of compulsion, but what happens is that the person would voluntary seclude his or her self from the outside world just because of his or her fear of encountering spiders in unknown territories. Since he or she would have more confidence that spiders don't exist inside his or her abode or room at least, he or she will opt to stay just inside, isolating him or herself from any human interactions as well. This holds true to really severe cases of arachnophobia wherein at times, compulsion and hysteria will already follow the present conditions of the patient.

Arachnophobia is perhaps one of the most common phobia classifications that most people in the world suffer from. The fear is normally influenced by an earlier trauma caused by a fearful incident with spiders. Sometimes, the fear may be caused by the common misconception of spiders, which happens to be almost present anywhere; television media, hearsays and myths from older folks, etc. The misguided depiction and or portrayal of spiders are often the primary causes why a person would begin fearing spiders. On the other side, you can't blame certain people though if they have started fearing spiders. If you are not a scientist, you may only look at a spider with gross, disgust and fear and never on how beautiful they are actually in a scientific kind of perception. Considering a spider is often found in dark places, or lurking in corners, and is also carnivorous, hideous, and eight-eyed, it is not a surprise anymore why most people would fear the presence of spiders amidst them.

How to Overcome the Fear Alone

There are actually certain ways wherein you can address the problem alone. Though it may truly help to seek advice from a professional phobia therapist, to at least guide you in the maybe longer term process of treating your arachnophobia, rest assured you can still do the process manually and on your own. Ultimately, the primary ingredient for a successful treatment is good mental conditioning and to foster sufficient determination to overcome your own ailments. It may help to set the goal of having a fear-free life, for you to achieve the desired output of the process.

1. Assess yourself first and recondition your mind. You must first foster a considerable amount of willingness and determination in order to combat your fear. Without willingness, the treatment process is surely doomed to fail. You may re-evaluate and recondition your mind by assessing what are the things that are important to you and their value and how much you will lose if you continue on being deterred by your fears.

2. Start slowly exposing yourself to your object of fear. Scientist often call this as the “exposure-response” method. Wherein, you will be subjected to a series of exposure until your compulsive responses in relation to your fear will be subtly and eventually mitigated. The only difference is that, you get to do this all by yourself. It’s not all impossible at all as the process in itself requires only you to execute.

3. Learn more about spiders. Know their wonders and how truly beautiful they are. That could be done be approaching the scientific view or perception on spiders. Accept that spiders are ultimately a part of this world and they bring purpose and balance in the ecological system of existence and life.

4. Acceptance is a key factor to the riddance of arachnophobia. You must embrace the truth that spider is potentially just everywhere, and you can never escape the fact that there will always be a spider encounter impending soon.

Amazing Facts about the Spider's Silk

2011-06-28T03:18:00.000-07:00

It might be hard to believe how something as delicate as a spider's web is actually more impenetrable than steel and all the other construction materials that mankind is currently using nowadays. In fact, it is even said that a spider's silk that is as thick as regular pencil would be strong enough to stop a giant aircraft from taking off! It is really amazing how creatures as small as spiders are able to produce a material that man has been envious about for quite some time now. No matter how advanced our current technologies are, we are still not able to replicate the spider's silk or at least culture enough spiders to create an actual industry out of their silk.

Spiders developed all sorts of uses for the silk that they produce. They make houses through it, protect their eggs with silk-sac, and make traps to catch prey and so much more. Many spiders use their silk for personal protection too. They shoot their silk to an aggressive insect or to another spider whenever they are threatened or offended. The black widow is a classic example of a spider that truly makes use of its silk to kill other spiders; after mating, the black widow is inclined to kill its mate by wrapping it with its silk until it suffocates to death. The black widow either feeds on their mate or stores the wrapped mate for future needs.

In an industrialist's point of view, silk is a very ideal construction material that can be used in the medical industry to warfare and so much more. With 50% of the spider's silk being pure polymerized protein (scientifically known as fibroine), the spider's silk took on an amazing molecular weight of 200 to 300 mols, which is actually heavier than so many other elements in the periodic table. Furthermore, microscopic images of the spider's silk revealed that the fibroine making up the silk is actually in a very systematic orientation, contributing to the extra strong characteristic of the material.

How Do Spiders Spew Solid Silk?

First, spiders have this unique characteristic to spew liquid silk that only becomes solid when exposed to air. The liquid leaves the spider's body through their glands and then hardens or polymerizes after in is exposed to air. Being made from protein and other organic materials, the polymerization of the liquid becomes too difficult for us to replicate. There are seven types of glands in a spider's body that are responsible for the production of silk, however, no spider specie has been found to have all these six glands. However, all spider species have the Glandula Aggregata which is the main gland for producing the sticky material that polymerizes to become the actual silk. All the other five glands may or may not be present in a specific spider. So, the glands are:

1. Glandula Aggregata - The gland for producing the sticky material that is the main component of the spider silk.

2. Ampulleceae (major and minor glands) - This is the gland most commonly found in hunting spiders. They use this gland to produce the walking threads which help them get from one place to another.

3. Pyriformers - Of course, the silk will not attach itself to walls, ceilings or other materials if the spider will not make it to. The only way by which spiders are able to do so is by utilizing this gland.

4. Tubiliformes - Have you ever seen a spider egg-sac? The egg-sac takes a very unique shape if compared to the regular structures made by the spiders. In order to make such a protection chamber for the eggs, the spider has to make us of its Tubiliformes.

5. Aciniformes - This glands works very similarly with Tubiliformes, the only difference in their purpose is that this is gland is used to encapsulate the prey and not the eggs of the spider.

6. Coronatae - If ever you have seen a spider's nest, you will see that their nests have an axis for sticking the threads around it. This axis is made by the gland called Coronatae.

Another very interesting thing about spiders is that they can just recycle their silk as easily as eating it. The silk can give them nourishment too (being made of protein). Thus, whenever their spider traps or house loses its adhesiveness maybe because of the rain or of any other damages, they can simply eat it and then construct a new one without wasting anything or whatsoever. The spider has a special organ for digesting the web since the web is actually a very strong material that cannot be easily digested under normal circumstances.

Current Advancements

According to spider silk experts, we are far from mimicking the complete characteristics of the spider web but on a yearly basis, we are also making good progress in this endeavour. At present, we are able to produce a silk that is closely related to the spider web. It is made from yeast and other bacteria that are laboratory-synthesized to have characteristics similar to the spider's web (although not quite). Developers of the material are hoping that it can be used for many different construction purposes in the near future.

Although our scientist today do not really understand yet how the actual silk is made by the spiders, the findings alone that the silk is made of at least 50% protein is already helping them so much in their quest to make good uses of the spider web, artificial or not. This understanding will eventually lead these scientists into finally developing a material that may replace plastic and Styrofoam, a really big breakthrough in materials engineering really.

Scientists are optimistic of that day when they will be able to crack the genetic code that makes up the spider's silk. Only by then will they be able to completely replicate the silk and start using it for things that can bring about great changes into humanity.

Systematic Desensitization: Empirical Cure for Arachnophobia

2011-06-27T03:14:00.000-07:00

Arachnophobia is perhaps listed as one of the most common fears of humans in this world; along with claustrophobia, hematophobia, and certain others that often leads to a person's unproductiveness and hysteria which could potentially be dangerous to the person himself and or the other people around him. Panicking are often the most conspicuous symptoms of Arachnophobia. People would immediately resolve into a state of neuroticism even if just placed or situated in a location where there is a possibility of spider presence. This fear often influence sufferers in their major decision making processes, as to where they live, or where they work, even to the kind of places they pass by out on the streets. The fear itself is a greater influence to the person who is suffering it than any other things the person experiences.

The intensity of a person's fear in spiders may depend on the consideration of the amount of trauma the person has experienced regarding spiders. The origin of the fear would more often than not take place in an individual's earlier experiences, usually in the childhood stages wherein stories of how disgusting and fearfully venomous spiders are to people, which also happens to be an urban myth since all the spider species are generally not harmful to humans at all. There may be very, very few spider species that could potentially be fatal to a human being but they are also rarely seen and are located endemically or only in specific places on earth.

Compound that with media move innovations, particularly in the fiction, horror realms of the industry which often portrays spider terrorism in a highly exaggerated perception, children viewers would often perceive the wrong information about spiders in an early age; carrying the fear eventually for the rest of their existence unless countered with another offsetting situation. Appropriate education regarding spiders is the most viable solution to the fear of them. However, they may not be as useful when the origin of fear is highly traumatic. For example, who happens to be bitten by a banana spider (see Brazilian Wandering Spider) and have survived the fatal call may live to fear spiders for the rest of his life. In that sort of cases, no amount of education will ever be sufficient to counter the fear of the individual, if ever he develops it.

Spider fear is curable. Unlike certain very severe phobias that are hard to treat, arachnophobia can be relinquished with proper process and therapy. Perhaps the most effective treatment of arachnophobia so far that are most availed as well by many people suffering from the same fear is the process of systematic desensitization. The process is actually old, innovated during 1950's by a south African scientist, Joseph Wolpe. The treatment goes by relaxing the patient upon exposure of the things that they fear most, which in this case are spiders. The outcome would be that the person who has the fear would become less sensitive over his source of fear.

The first step of the process would entail the stratification of the levels of fear triggers of the patient. The list would count starting from the most feared manifestation to the scenarios or situations with lesser responses. For example, an arachnophobic person would treat encountering a spider first hand would be the worst case scenario for him. That would then be enlisted as number one in the list rank. And if simple pictures of spiders will have milder reactions or responses, it would be enlisted then as last in the rank. Following the first step is the process of relaxing the patient as much as possible by using certain techniques in hypnotherapy and patient may relax partially to becoming totally subconscious about things around him or her.

Often the process of relaxation would entail a follow up approach of regression wherein the patient would be ask to imagine or visualize the idea of spiders in his or her head. The approach would also be inclusive of proximity visualization; imagining the image of a spider up close to a considerable distance. If the therapist would sense any particular reaction coming from the patient along the way, the treatment is then paused. The therapist would then again ask the patient to relax once and the entire process is repeated, vice versa. The goal is that eventually the patient will become overly exposed in the image in his or her mind that he or she will eventually diminish the responses later, making the person less sensitive in his or her object of fear. And then later on, he or she would be much more indifferent in imagining his or her worst case scenarios.

The process of imagining or visualizing the object of in sparring distances is called vivo exposure. The person, who happens to fear spiders, will be asked by his therapist to go and expose himself with spiders around him. He may ask the patient to go to the zoo with him and ask him to touch a tarantula, which should be most likely docile. The therapist would initially demonstrate the process to serve as basis or model to the patient and then gradually, the patient will be persuaded to the same thing the therapist did. A progressive reinforcement of assurance is often entailed in the process of exposure making the patient more confident about his fear and eventually overcome it subtly. Ultimately, the patient will then pick up the spider at his own free will.

However, the process may vary from to time depending on the degree of certain aspects of the person's fear. Reassessments and re-evaluation may have to be considered from time to time in order to make the process truly effective and efficient. Goals would be altered every once in a while to really convey the root of the fear of the patient and essentially get rid of it. The attack towards the root of fear may differ in terms of hitting the mark. Accuracy may depend as well in the amount of cooperation the patient will put forth in the treatment process.

Spider Phobia 2.0

2011-06-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

Fear is a terrible thing for anyone to have. All the more of it's a directed fear. The fear of a specific thing, action, or situation can be very deterring and at the same time debilitating to an individual, turning the person unproductive in his or her daily activities and making things even more complicated to accomplish even the simplest of things. The development of anxiety would then eventually devour the person into a state of anxiety; a further complication to the degrading state of the person which could potentially lead to more serious self-destructive behaviors and even suicide. There's more to fear that you should fear than fear itself.

Phobia is a self debilitating condition wherein the person suffers from irrational fear over an object, situation or a particular activity, that he or she will avoid to engage them even to the direst circumstances. Because of this condition, the person suffering from a phobia will live a highly restricted and constricted life, unable to move freely because of his or her fear on engaging the things that he or she doesn't want to engage. What's worse is that the person is actually aware and conscious of his or her irrational behavior over fearing something.

Oftentimes, phobia and anxiety are intertwined. Sometimes, phobia can be a result of a preceding anxiety over something and other times it's otherwise, wherein the development of anxiety will only come later. But more often than not they are concurrent to an individual suffering from it. To identify a phobic anxiety over the other forms of anxiety, you must first distinguish the situations when the anxiety strikes. If the anxieties are more directional, meaning it triggers only upon encounter of specific conditions, and it the trigger factors could be targeted immediately, or easily identified, then the person is experiencing a phobic anxiety. All the other typical symptoms of anxiety will then follow after, such as rapid heart palpitation, nervousness, nausea, upsetting of the stomach, frequent urination, profuse sweating and all other physiological disorders. Often there are occasions when the person suffering from the anxiety will experience swooning and losing consciousness due to the extremities of his or her condition. But that would only take place of course upon the encounter on the object of fear. More than half the time the person suffering from phobia will do everything in his or her power to avoid the object of fear and thus in return, the sufferer will lose most of its freedom.

There are different types of phobias and they classified according to their effects' severity to the sufferer. The first type of phobia would concern more on much simpler basis. This type of phobia would include the fear of certain objects or animals, deep waters, closed spaces and heights. They are more often than not less interfering with the person's daily activities and productivity. Since the triggers are more specific, they tend to be less triggered because it would require a more exigent circumstance. The second type of phobia is the kinds of fears that considerably disrupt the person's activities like agoraphobia, or the fear of public spaces. This phobia is often accompanied by hysteria and anxiety and would often force a person to place his or her self in ultimate seclusion, depriving him of any civil interactions. Third type of phobia is more social in nature, instigating fear even in person to person interactions.

Spider phobia belongs to the first type of phobia as they are more related on simple and specific orientations, particularly on spiders.

Arachnophobia is basically the fear of spiders. This kind of fear are most likely not innate or inherent to an individual and mostly triggered and developed in growth eventually. The fear may stem out of certain circumstances or situations where the person or an individual has undergone traumatic memories that is related or at least somehow related to spiders. Most of the arachnophobia cases would stem out beginning in most people's childhood days. Whether by watching a scary movie about spiders or a spider bite them and have caused considerable worries afterward, any of these factors could lead to the development of a person's fear on spiders and they will carry that fear for the rest of their life unless if treated appropriately. That's why, there are certain situations where a person, who is not originally afraid of spiders would start fearing them as well because of the certain influences that would affect his or her mentality. An example of this is the misguided portrayal of spiders in certain fiction horror movies and misconceptions of most people about venomous spiders. These kinds of things would often trigger a person to begin fearing about spiders.

One reason why most people are inevitably afraid of spiders is because of how most people would perceive a spider be. They are more often than not considered to be ugly and disgusting and creatures, even scary by nature. While a lot of people believe this, youngsters and certain individuals who are not really afraid of spiders would learn from the misconception of others and would begin to believe as well, installing fear within them.

Perhaps the best way to combat the fear on spiders is to have sufficient information about the creatures and to acknowledge their real natures without prejudice. Studying spiders and understanding would open up levels of appreciation and that could ultimately prevent or cure the fear of a person on them. But there are these certain times wherein the person is just to rooted in his or her fear that she wouldn't believe anything anymore that is later introduced. These kinds of people are most likely to suffer more from their fear, developing symptoms of hysteria and anxiety. Compulsions may also develop later as a symptom in an individual who has a certain fear over spiders. Compulsive behaviors like exaggerated sanitary behaviors are the most common in a person who has utter fear on spiders. They will do whatever they can to make sure that spiders will never be encountered inside the house.

Citrus-based Spider Sprays

2011-06-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

If you can stand the thought of having to deal with spider control on your own then you are not Arachnophobic. Perhaps, the reason why you want to repel and control spiders is not about fear or whatsoever; rather it is just your preference to live a spider-less life. Being a do-it-yourself advocate means wanting to make your own spider repellents too. Thus, this article is all about the natural spider repellents that you can make by yourself.

Is the use of natural control methods a good idea?

Although it is already a given fact that the most effective way to control pests, insects and other creatures is through the use of chemicals, there is still merit to using natural control methods. First, you would not want to expose your beloved pets to poisonous materials, don't you? If you use poisonous pesticides, there is a possibility that the poison hits non-target animals like your pets. In rare cases, even infants and toddlers are poisoned by such chemicals. Thus, if you are the kind of person who values safety above anything else, it can be said that the use of natural control methods to deal with spiders is a very good idea.

Repelling versus Killing

Since it has been established that if you want to do the control methods on your own you are definitely not an Arachnophobic person, those with Arachnophobia would never want to have anything to do with spiders except for stopping them from ever coming into their lives. Arachnophobic individuals would prefer to repel spiders and hinder them from ever entering the house in the first place. Nevertheless, there are certain methods that can kill spiders on the spot and many people who only got concerned about spider infestation right after they found out that spiders are already infesting in their homes have to deal with the extermination. The fact alone that they have not done anything prior to an infestation proves that they are not that concerned about spider infestation. Thus, we can conclude there that spider repelling is for Arachnophobics while spider extermination is for those who simply don't like spiders around them.

For Arachnophobics Wanting to Repel Spiders

Now, having known that you cannot stand the possibility of living with spiders under the same roof, you are confronted by the need to make certain that you make your house spider proof in the very place. Here is a simple spider repellent recipe which you can follow:

Citrus Spray

Do you know that spiders cannot stand the taste of citrus? I don't really know the scientific explanation behind this but from what I have read, spiders are said to be oversensitive to citric acid that exposure to it can kill them. So, having known this, let's make a fancy citrus-based spray that will surely repel spiders out of your house (apparently, spiders taste using their feet so, if you spray this on surfaces around your house, they will not even want to walk anywhere in your house).

You only need three things: (1) Any citrus fruit (orange, lemon, citronella, lime, etc.) or essential oils of these fruits, (2) water and (3) a spray bottle. If you are using real citrus fruits, boil the peelings of the fruits in water and that will be your entire spray mix. However, it is still better if you use essential oils because the citrus "taste" will be stronger if you use oils. Make sure that you are not using synthetic essential oils because these oils do no really have the same characteristics as the actual thing; you will only be wasting your efforts if you will do so. Do not buy the oil if it is labelled "fragrance oil", make sure you buy the "essential oil" or else your spray will be ineffective.

Do not be confused with the name "essential oil" and expect a liquid product that closely resembles that of oil, in fact, essential oils appear like water when it comes to consistency. You can buy these oils in most drugs stores but some grocery stores are also selling such products. These are laboratory-extracted oils from citrus fruit peelings and the oil retains most of the chemical characteristics of the fruit from which it is extracted from. Once you have the oil in your hands, mix it with some water. Make sure that you measure the amount of water accurately so that you will get the most effect from the essential oils. One quart of water is enough for exactly a teaspoon of 100% pure essential oil. Place the mixture in the empty spray bottle and shake well before you spray.

Choose areas in the house where spiders are most likely to lurk. You can spray the basement floor and ceiling, closets, garage, attic and other dark areas in your house. The solution might be too easy but this really works. In fact, I have tried this on my own and I haven't spotted any spiders in my attic for months now. Apart from being effective, the best thing I like about a citrus spray is that it is purely organic, non-toxic and very safe to use around pets and children.

If you do not have the time to make your own spray, you can simply buy a ready-made citrus-based spray in some pest control stores. However, most of these products are available only in online-based stores so you must be careful in making your purchases so that you can be sure that you are giving the most value for the money that you spend on spider control.

Last Reminders

Although essential oils are toxic-free and are generally safe to use around children and pets, when exposed to high concentrations, it may cause irritations, most especially in the eyes. Thus, it is still important for you to keep the essential oil concentrate someplace where kids and pets will not be able to reach them. Nevertheless, the use of spider sprays is still the best way to repel spiders at home.

How to Keep Spiders Out of Your House?

2011-06-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

Before we even talk about spider control, it should be clear that most of the spiders that we see at home are very safe. Spiders that can stand human presence are very timid and only bite when intentionally offended. Thus, it should be clear from the very start to emphasize that the need for spider control is actually an exaggerated concept and majority of those who think that spider control is a must do not really look at spiders as pests, rather as a source of fear caused by their spider phobia. Another thing, spiders are helping humans in one way or another. In the settings of our homes, spiders are very effective in controlling flies and mosquitoes population, both of which are very harmful to human health because of the diseases that they carry with them. Moreover, many house spiders even repel poisonous spiders from ever entering a house; the Giant House Spider is a classic example.

Now, no matter how much emphasis is placed on the unnecessary of spider control, we cannot deny the fact that those who suffer from Arachnophobia (and there are so many of them) will have to live a pathetic life if they try to live with spiders under the safe roof. Thus, no matter how unneeded, spider control is still something that should be learned and taught because some people's lives are going to be much better if spiders are not around them. This article is for this select instance.

Where Would Spiders Lurk?

Out in the open environment, spiders prefer to live in meadows, in trees, in rocks and in other undisturbed places. House spiders and those outdoor spiders that happen to come across a house also prefer the same. Expect to see spiders in areas in your house that are dusty, dingy and dark. I prefer calling theses three characteristics as the three D's. Thus, if you want to really avoid spider infestation, might as well start cleaning your attic, cupboard and garage right now. Spiders can also find peace in dark corners and in other concealed areas in the house like underneath beds, floors, ceilings, furniture, closets and even old cartoon boxes.

In your yard or garden, spiders are most likely to be seen in vegetation, trees and dry grasses. They normally feed on the insects the also live in such places. The hunting spiders are usually the ones found outdoors while the web-making spiders usually stay indoors and wait for their prey to fall into their silk traps.

To keep spiders out of your house and away from your yard, you have to make these places unattractive to spiders. Since they like dust, then clean out the dust and mop the places where they are most likely to be seen.

Great Ideas

Stockpiling stuff makes it harder to control clutter at home. Spiders like clutter because it is really difficult to dust places where clutter has already started to accumulate. Clutter means having boxes and plastic containers piled in specific corners of your house, these things are very ideal for spider infestation. So, as a better idea, you can do either of the following:

1. Donate old stuff

It is usually the unused stuff that gets to be piled up. Old shoe boxes are popular spider favorites, so instead of simply piling them up, why not donate them to those who might need them. That way, you will be helping both yourself and the person whom you give your stuff to. You can also donate clothes which are stored in boxes or untouched closets. Spiders like to live in areas where disturbance is very minimal and if you continue to keep stuff which is not used, you are only risking yourself to the possibility of harboring spiders in your house.

2. Clean closets

We normally forget to clean out our closets thoroughly and in most cases, we only dust those areas which are readily seen by the naked eye. By cleaning closets, I mean to tell you that you should empty your closet of all its contents so that you can reach the corners inside. You can use a vacuum cleaner to remove all the dust and then wipe insides of your closet with cloth to give it the shiny look. If the closet used to be storage for toys, you can really assume that some of the toys (especially those with large holes on them) should have been infested by spiders inside too. To clear you doubt, spray the toys with water at high pressure. Make sure that you spray every part of the toys and then let them dry before you place them inside plastic bags before you put them back in the closet. That way, you will be avoiding further infestation inside these toys.

3. Do not miss the Garage and the Sheds

Of course, you need to clean these places as much as you cleaned the closets and the other parts of the house. You also need to apply the general rule of clutter control: do not keep unnecessary things. That means that empty bottles, tin cans and cartoons should be disposed the very moment that their contents are consumed. If you have any idea as to how to recycle those stuff, then do so, just don't let them linger in your Garage or shed since spiders will most likely view them as an open and indirect invitation. Use a vacuum cleaner/blower to clean every corner of your garage. Make sure the dust is completely done away with and that the place is properly lighted since spiders prefer dark areas.

As a general advice, focus on areas where very little activities happen. Since spiders prefer to be alone by themselves, it will be helpful if you make sure that you utilize every portion of your house, or at least, you get to "clean" those places which are not really intended for any activities like the attic, the ceiling and the cupboards. Do the cleaning at least twice in a month and surely, spiders will detest living in your house.

Arachnophobia Treatments: Getting Rid of Your Fear of Spiders for Good

2011-06-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

You should have heard of the classic phrases "Conquer your fear" and "It is easier said than done" as these two repeatedly collide against each other. Conquering a fear is supposed to be the most logical thing for a person to do, but it become too difficult when the fear itself is illogical. That's the case of phobias. While it is human nature to be afraid of things that can compromise his or her life, phobia is something that transcends even deeper than eminent danger. For example, a person who is suffering from Arachnophobia does not only feel anxious and uneasy at the sight of actual spiders, rather, mere images or thoughts are sufficient to bring about excessive panic reactions from these individuals. They will refuse to go into places that might harbor spiders like meadows, grasslands, parks, etc. In most cases, phobias affect the overall quality of an individual's life. Arachnophobia, being the most common of all phobias is affecting millions of individuals as of the writing of this article.

Humiliation is very common amongst those who suffer from Arachnophobia. Severe cases recorded revealed that even Spiderman can become a cause of fear amongst the Arachnophobics. This illogical fear towards something is not apparently not dangerous cause tremendous social issues for the sufferers to deal with. They would often become hysterical once they come across spiders even if they are in very populated places, drawing attention to them and to their disorder, causing further psychological damages. In some cases, arachnophobia has caused deaths amongst drivers who lost control and panicked upon the sight of a spider which they are driving. Cases like these lead to a single solution, and that is, to treat Arachnophobia as fast as possible.

Types of Treatments So Far

1. Hypnotherapy

While the use of hypnosis in phobia treatment is still not very well founded to date, a lot of patients who have undergone hypnotherapy have actually proven that this type of treatment does work. Through Neuro linguistic Programming or conditioning the sub consciousness of an individual, the therapist will be able to suggest thoughts that can change a person's point of view towards certain things. For example, drug and alcohol addiction are said to be easier to treat if regression is applied. Since the addiction has already corrupted the logical thinking capacity of a person, the best way to help the person make sense of the reason why the addiction needs to be gotten over is to tap the sub consciousness. In the same way with phobias, those who patronize hypnosis to treat phobias believe that the best way to communicate to a person and convince him or her that the fear is rather illogical is to talk to him or her through his or her sub consciousness.

The main goal of Hypnotherapy is to help the sufferer look at spiders in a different light; to make them see that majority of the spiders are harmless and that they are not likely to be hurt by just some random spiders. We can look at phobia as a ready-made script encrypted in our brains and not matter how much effort a person puts forth, the brain will simply re-load the script and proceed into thinking that the fear is indeed apparent. Hypnosis is like "re-programming" or "re-writing" this script. Now, whether hypnosis is indeed real or not, many people still thinks that there is a clear logic behind this procedure. The only thing left to be answered by hypnosis advocates lies on the process by which the sub consciousness is tapped.

2. Actual Exposure Treatment

Although is method is rarely used, Actual Exposure Treatment is actually the most effective method to treat Arachnophobia. However, the main problem with this method is that it cannot be used on people who have extreme Arachnophobia because it involves the actual exposure of the patient to his or her object of fear. In the case of Arachnophobia, the patient is made to deal with actual spiders, of course the intensity and gravity of the exposure increases gradually. They start with long distance encounter until they would reach a point when patients are really made to hold and touch the spiders. This is very effective because it directly rebuts the notion of the brain that the spiders are supposed to be fearsome. If the patient would have a controlled encounter with the spider, he or she will soon figure out that the fear is indeed illogical. Of course, this can't be done without a psychiatric and medical expert around. Every time the patient successfully completes a specific stage in the treatment, the psychiatrist and the physician has to make certain that the experience sinks into the consciousness of the patient.

However, the problem with this method is that many patients end up quitting the treatment before it is completed because of their extreme disgust for actual spiders which are used in the therapy.

3. Virtual Exposure Treatment

Virtual exposure treatment works under the assumption that the previously mentioned treatment procedure is effective and the only hindrance why too few people are able to avail of this treatment is because it uses actual spiders in the therapy. Virtual exposure seeks to replace the actual spiders with computer graphics, pictures, sounds and other objects that closely resembles a spider, but it is not the actual spider per se. But doing so, the Arachnophobic is more cooperative of the procedure until such a time when he or she finally gets to relate everything in the therapy to his or her fear on spiders. Of course, this type of treatment still requires an expert around or else everything done during its course might just become a waste.

Recent studies revealed that Virtual exposure treatment is more effective than its counterpart (actual exposure); however, no data has been made whether it is also better than hypnosis. To date, hypnosis is still the most popular Arachnophobia treatment method. In fact, many hypnosis clinics capitalize on Arachnophobics because there's just so many of them.

Spider Anatomy (Part II)

2011-06-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

In the last article we have discussed the external parts of a spider's anatomy, comprising basically of the two segmented parts: The abdomen and the cephalothorax. In the previous article, the cephalothorax and its components were discussed and exemplified. In this article we will be discussing more about the abdomen part of the spider's anatomy as well as its internal parts and their function.

The Abdomen

Unlike the cephalothorax part of the spider, the abdomen is rather soft and saclike. Located in the underside of the spider's abdomen are actually three pairs of spinnerets. Spinnerets are actually where a spider's thread comes out. It serves as an outlet for the silk producing glands that a spider has. Each of the three spinnerets produces different quality of spider silk with each other but contributes in a diversified function whether for creating an orb web or capturing their prey. They are also studded with fine, hair-like cylinders or tubes called spigots, which are the ones responsible for creating different types of spider silk threads. The spigot tubes actually lead to the different types of silk glands that spider's abdomen has. Inside the abdominal glands, silk is initially produced as liquid. When the spigots shoots the silk liquid, certain protein molecules and components of the silk will line up with one another causing the entire material to harden once it hits air. The silk then forms into a s
trong, highly elastic fiber filaments which the spiders use as well for all of its locomotion.

However, the air is not the responsible factor as to why the silk harden once it comes out of the spider's body. It is the process of which the spigots draw them out of the spider's silk producing glands. The silk produced by the different spigots may combine and fuse altogether to form a much more elastic and stronger silk fiber or filament. The spinnerets of a spider is not actually just mere punctures in the spider's abdomen, but are regarded by most scientists as a spider's hidden limbs. It is considered so because spinnerets can move accordingly as to how the spider would be using its silk, whether by capturing a prey or creating its dwelling. This is also the reason why a marvel concept character, Spiderman, shoots his threads out of his hands instead of his ass. Apart from the fact that it would utterly ridiculous if Spiderman would shoot webs from the behind, it is also essentially because of the truth that spider's spinnerets are actually their hidden limbs.

Internal Anatomy

Have you ever squished a spider? Have you ever tried paying attention to what you have just crushed? If so, you would have noticed that once you squish a spider, it's just their blood that you see and certain bodily fluids colored grey or ash and sometimes with something white.

You may have thought that a spider doesn't have any sort of insides in them; and that they are all made of liquid and mushy flesh parts and its only their exoskeletons that's making them as hard as they can. However, you are truly wrong if this is what you think about a spider's inside. Because like it or not, a spider's body interior is comprised of a lot of things as well, including a nervous system. You better think twice again when you are squishing off spiders mercilessly. Think about the amount of excruciating pain they would have to go through to die at your whim.

The cephalothorax part of the spider's anatomy is actually a shell casing to a lot of the spider's interior parts. In the cephalothorax resides the spider's digestive system and nervous system. The abdomen of a spider is also the place where most of the vital organs of a spider are located. Vital organs such as a long, tubular heart, reproductive organs, excretory organs and respiratory organs are all found in a spider's abdomen.

The Respiratory System

A spider actually has two types of respiratory organs. One type of breathing organ is the book lungs and the other is the tracheal tube. There are certain narrow slits within the abdomen of a spider and they are leading to two to four respiratory organs namely, book lungs. They are named that way because of their alternating levels or layers of air spaces certain minute leaflets all filled with their blood, making it look something like of an open book. Each time the spider breathes, the oxygen in the air would immediately be sifted through the very thin cuticle leaflets and right into the blood of the spider.

There are also small openings located nearby the spinnerets. However, they are not in any way related to the silk production process of the spider. These holes are called spiracles and leads to the cuticle-made tracheal tubes. These almost microscopic tubes are allocated all over the body to distribute air to the spider's entire system.

Blood Circulation

A spider's blood is not red. If you have squished spiders from time to time in your life, you would have known this by now. Their blood is actually called hemolymph. The hemolymph contains lots of blood cells and oxygen delivering blood pigments called hemocyanin. Hemocyanin is also the responsible component why a spider's blood is colored grey or light blue. In contrast to the humans blood with blood cells containing haemoglobin which carries the oxygen all throughout the human body, a spider's blood has also an almost the same characteristics. It also have blood cells that carry oxygen to the many different parts of a spider's anatomy, as well as certain antibodies that help combat harmful bacteria to a spider and as well wound recoveries.

Unlike humans with an apparently mango-shaped hearts, a spider's heart is rather cylindrical or tubular in shape and it lies in the back part of the abdomen. Each time it contracts it delivers the blood forward into the cephalothorax then sends it back to the abdomen. Blood would travel into very small tubes or also called arteries which are vastly distributed in their entire body cavity.

Spider Anatomy (Part I)

2011-06-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Just like any other biological creatures on earth, a spider also has an anatomical structure. Each part of its anatomy has a designated purpose for its special function. Without at least one of the spider's anatomical parts, the spider may not exist at all.

A spider is an amazing creature on earth. It's really worth a while to take a look at them closely and try to comprehend their nature. You will come to understand how they magnificently struggle into existence despite the dangerous environments around them. You will also come to fully rationalize the very reason why spiders do what they do and understand why as well they have certain features in them. When you get to know what they are for and how they tangibly function for a spider's existence, you will be amazed how much there is to understand about spiders. There's certainly more to them than just the domestic bugs you normally get rid of along with termites and cockroaches.

There are many ways to foster the appropriate appreciation and interest for spiders and one way to do about that are to know more about them, starting with learning their anatomy.

The External Body

The common anatomy of a spider is a body that is comprised in two parts: the abdomen, where the silk producing glands and the spinnerets are located, and the prosoma or cephalothorax which is where the head, eyes, chelicerae are located. A pedicel is a portion of the spider body that conjunct the two parts. A spider size could range from about less than 1 millimetre or .04 inches, to 10 centimetres or 4 inches in length. But there are other spider species, particularly the tarantulas, which can grow as large as 10-12 inches. In fact the tarantula species is where the largest spiders are.

Often called a hard shell of an invertebrate, the exoskeleton is the only thing responsible of protecting the insides of the spider. It covers its entire body. The materials that comprise a spider's exoskeleton is mainly based on some protein compounds with tough fibers namely chitin. The exoskeleton is basically stratified cuticles of the protein compounds convoluted into one another, and the arrangement of the piles often improves the protection it gives to the spider and as well as its flexibility. The cuticle also provides a desiccation mechanism for the spider and also the framework to the various muscles that a spider possesses. There's a difference however, between the cuticle found in the abdomen and the cephalothorax. The cephalothorax cuticles are relatively harder than that of the abdomen. Each time a spider molts, it sheds away the old cuticles and develops a new one to cover itself.

The Cephalothorax

This part of the spider's body is comprised of a variety of structures and appendages. The first part is chelicerae that are used by the spider to bite its prey and for initial digestion. Another part near the chelicerae is the poison glands where the venom is located which are usually used to immobilize their victims, especially to smaller species of spiders. Another part is the pedipalps, leg-like appendages which also happen to look like their ninth and tenth legs but considerably small in size. And also the initial four rear legs of the spider and the 6-8 eyes.

Mouth Parts

To most spiders, they are able to grab hold of their prey by using their two appendages near their mouth. These things are called the chelicerae. Actually, the chelicerae more or less resemble a pocket knife to a spider. The chelicerae contain a pair of fangs as well that when a spider prepares to take a bite or uses it for some other reasons, swings out from its former position and stabs right into the preys body. Nearby the fang of a spider is the poison glands' duct opening. The fangs actually serve as needles for the venom that a spider will inject to its victim in order immobilize it.

Other purposes of chelicerae are to dig out holes in the ground and to carry preys around from one place to another. But the purposes may differ on the species of the spider.

Poison Glands

Perhaps referred to as the bread and butter of the spider race, a spider's venom is its main tool for capturing and subduing its prey. Despite the spider's sheer force (particularly in the case of larger spiders like tarantulas), they would still need to subdue their victims with venom to ensure no escape. When to be used, the chelicerae muscles would then contract squeezing the glands in order to produce the toxins needed, it would then come out from the duct opening located near the fangs and then to the prey.

Palps and Legs

Right behind a spider's chelicerae are a pair of palps. These segmented looking limbs are not only used for feeding but also for feeling its prey before eating it. Most male species of spiders use their palps to inject sperms to females during intercourse. Adjacent to the pair of palps are the initial four pairs of legs of a spider. These legs are quite hairy. The hair in the legs of a spider is used to detect vibrations from prey or to foresee any imminent danger in the environment. Basically, the legs of a spider serve as its antennae. This protects the spider from all sorts of danger every time.

Sensory Organs

Most species of spiders are nocturnal and they will most likely do all the hunting at night. As a result to that innate characteristic, spiders have developed keener senses than its visual aspects and in return their eyes are also less developed. There are other species of spiders however, that has more developed eyesight and mainly uses it to capture their prey. Apart from the hairs found in their palps and legs, a spider also has a lot of hairs in its feet which are more often used to taste its prey.

A lot of spiders only have four pairs of simple eyes. Simple eyes are eyes that only have single lenses. These parts are located in the front area of the cephalothorax. There are certain species of spiders however, like the brown recluse which only has six.

A Spider's Venom: a Cure to Erectile Dysfunction

2011-06-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

To those who are still unaware of what an erectile dysfunction is, an erectile is medical condition wherein the penis is unable to achieve an erection despite stimulation. That becomes a problem when it comes to the time of performance. If you are unable to make a stand, you're just simply not going anywhere. Erectile dysfunctions have been a problem to 18 million men in United States alone. There are also cases of women suffering from erectile dysfunction, wherein the clitoris, the female counterpart of the male's penis is unable to achieve an engorged state despite considerable stimulation. While some of these cases are considered to psychologically inclined and could eventually be treated successfully through psychotherapy or hypnotherapeutic treatments, most of the erectile dysfunction cases remain to be biologically oriented. Meaning, there is something wrong with the biological function of the human body that's why it can't produce an erection. Most of the cases of men having an erectile dysfunction have got something to do with their kind of lifestyle. Long term cigarette smoking and chronic alcoholism are among the major causes of early manifestations of erectile dysfunction. Other reasons such as deprivation and aging are just deemed natural causes and are often more easily treated.

Erectile dysfunction is really a very potent morale degrader to many men. The inability of men to perform optimally in sexual occasions hurts the pride even more thus, affecting how the person would see himself eventually. There are even reported cases of men having erectile dysfunctions, committing suicide or absolutely secluding themselves close from public, avoiding interactions anymore, especially with females. Often, the problem can also consequentially lead to the development of minor to sever depression to both sexes. Complications vary depending on the patients' perception.

The problem and as well as the complications of erectile dysfunctions is also quite evident in the later adult individuals. Naturally, as you age, the rest of the biological functions deteriorate. Cell regenerations are slower, along with oxidization processes would be reduced to half its normal pace as it was when during the regular adult stage. As there are still men and women who prefer to remain sexually active during their late adult stage, erectile capacity is of prime importance.

The essential ultimate solution to erectile dysfunction is through a healthy lifestyle. Nothing can make you more certain of an imminent erection when an occasion rises than living a clean and health life. Proper diet and exercise enables blood circulation and oxidization in the body. Compound that with proper nourishment, there is just no way you will suffer from an erectile dysfunction anytime. While there might be cases it can be psychological, that is however a rare scenario, often caused by post-traumas from certain harsh situations.

Fortunately as well, the development of erection inducing drugs was already commenced during the 21st century. Drugs like Viagra, Levitra, Cialis are among the top-notching erectile inducing drugs in the market. Also, performance enhancing drugs that prolong the capacity of a person's sexual performance were already being produced. However, there are still certain people that relatively don't respond to any of the medications mentioned above. There is about one of three in the overall population of impotent men do not respond to treatments like Viagra, Levitra and Cialis and therefore would need much more potent drugs that could facilitate their erection.

The Brazilian Wandering Spider Venom: Cure to Impotency

In Washington, scientists have recently discovered a type of spider indigenous in Brazil that possesses venom that contains a potential cure to problems of impotency and other erectile dysfunctions. The spider's bite is utterly painful and even fatal to human beings but it also packs more than just a painful bite and muscle constrictions. Its venom can also cause long hours of hyper-erection to the patient. Now, scientists have discovered what that component in the venom is that causes the reaction. They are now looking forward in isolating then synthesizing the compound to become the ultimate cure to a lot of sexually deprived men in the world.

Medical staffs in Brazil could easily identify someone who's just been bitten by the wandering spider. The patient's stiffness has got a lot to tell already. Along with high blood pressure and overall muscle pain, the erection is also a literally mind-blowing situation for them.

Researchers from Romulo Leite of the Medical College in Georgia say that the prolonged erection is a side-effect of the venom along with the body pains and they are now looking to a possibility of synthesizing a drug out of it that could cure erectile dysfunctions.

Rodent Erections

Leite and his colleagues broke down the components of the venom in order to isolate the one that causes the prolong erection and have injected them into test rats to see if there will be any effect. The component is then dubbed Tx2-6, is actually an amino compound called peptide.

Lab rats were also injected needle like devices into their penises, in order to measure what's going inside during the induction of the compound. Scientists have also discovered the significant raise in the levels of nitrous oxide in the rat's bodies.

The Science of Erection

Nitric Oxide is of imperative importance during the process of erection, not only to humans but to every sexual living being as well. When the brain senses an apparent sexual arousal, the neurons of the body produce nitrous oxide, and this would tell the system to commence an erection. An array of biological after-effects would also take place such as the production of the enzymes called cGMP. The enzyme causes the cylindrical muscle tubes of the penis to relax, in order for the blood to flow right into it. The expandable tubes would then be filled with blood and thus causing the entire penile muscle to inflate and be erect. A human penis could store as much as ten times amount of blood when erect compared to its limp state.

Of course, no erection can last a lifetime. A party crasher compound called PDE-5 causes the deflation of the penis by breaking the enzymes cGMP and thus returning the penis to a limp state.

Arachnophobia: Fear of Spiders Explained

2011-06-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

It is quite safe to say that the other phobias known to us today are new, at least relative to spider phobia. Inexplicable fear for anything related to height or needles may have just aroused after we started to extensively use big needles in the medical industry or build tall skyscrapers pointing towards the sky -- all of these are fairly recent. The experts who made the first theories on spider phobia or Arachnophobia say that this fear has been around for as long as humans have lived. According to their theories, humans are supposed to have inherited this trait from their ancient ancestors who first figured out that spiders can be really deadly, hence be feared. The phobia, according to them is just like an evolutionary predisposition inherent to humans. Nevertheless, recent studies have revealed that majority of those who are extremely afraid of spiders could have just acquired this trait during their early childhood, which is contrary to the first claims that it Arachnophobic individuals are born with the phobia already.

Fear and Phobia

It is normal for people to fear things that can harm them. For example, it is a normal human reaction to be afraid of height if there is a grave possibility of fallout, or it is normal to be afraid of snakes if the proximity of the snake is sufficient to inflict danger to us. However, if a mere picture of a snake freaks you out, or the mere thought that you are in a tall skyscraper already gives you shivers up to your spine, then perhaps, that's phobia. Phobia is an inexplicable fear towards something; things like fear of dust, fear of peanut butter stuck on the roof the mouth, fear of germs, etc.

Spider Phobia Explained

Now, while it is normal to be afraid of creepy creatures like snakes and spiders, according to the experts, studies revealed that Arachnophobic individuals react very differently to any stimuli related to spiders as compared to equally dangerous stimuli like guns, knives, car, etc. Furthermore, they conducted a separate experiment on Arachnophobia participated by individuals separated into two groups, those with previous experience with spiders and the other, with no experience at all.

Surprisingly, although all members of both groups agree that spiders can be potentially dangerous, it was found out that those who do not have experience with spiders show the more aggressive reactions towards the test subjects. This made the experts conclude that the fear towards spiders may not be due to the preferential attention that they get (one popular theory is that spiders can grab attention quickly that children might processed fear towards spiders early in their development stage because of an encounter). According to the theory of preferential attention, since these creatures can grab our attention quickly, we are most likely to develop an implicit fear over them which could have evolved into a phobia as we grow older.

This furthers their theory that Arachnophobia may have been caused by preferential attention couple by certain emotional responses. For example, if a child grew up in a home where most adults cringe at the very sight of spiders, that child might grow up developing that same fear. Thus, according to these experts, phobia may have been avoided even after an encounter if the emotional response incited is not negative. For example, the participants in the experiment belonging to the group whose members have experience with spiders strengthens this theory by establishing that their encounter with spiders in the past has not affected them because the emotional response elicited right after the encounter wasn't negative. Those who belong to the other group, on the other hand, revealed significant fear towards spiders even though they haven't had any encounter with spiders yet. It was found out that many of these people are simply greatly influence by the media and their environment to condition their minds to think of spiders as very fearsome creatures.

Phobia Treatment

The most common method employed for spider phobia treatment nowadays is hypnotherapy which basically is just mind conditioning. All types of phobias are born because of how our minds are conditioned, that is, to fear the object of our phobia as they are extremely harmful, at least that's how we perceive them. Just like all disorders, for a treatment to be effective, one has to make sure that the disorder is indeed existent and is not a mere product of whim or false state of mind. Moreover, those who do have the disorder but denies the fact that they are indeed Arachnophobic may just miss treatment and continue living a life fool of unfounded fear. Thus, here's a short checklist which might help you assess if you are a pure-blood Arachnophobic:

1. You hate the thought of spiders and you never want to think of them at all.

2. Thinking of anything that resembles a spider (shape, texture, size, color, etc.) gives you the creep.

3. Googly eyes are creepy for you, so as four pairs of legs.

4. Above all things, you never want to see a spider your whole life.

Now, if any of the four given conditions above (there are other things that can make you say that you are Arachnophobic, the four above are mere examples) make your heart pound incredulously fast, rush blood into your face and make you sweat like the temperature around you just shoot to 40 deg centigrade, then you are definitely terrified of spiders.

Having known of your real condition, you will then be able to assess for yourself if you are willing to overcome your spider phobia. The will to proceed with the treatments should emanate from the Arachnophobic individual himself or herself; else the entire procedure will just fail. Without direct participation from the patient, any attempts to access their sub consciousness (that's how hypnotherapy works) will not work and mind conditioning will be impossible. Moreover, those who are willing to submit themselves to hypnotherapy should make sure that they are dealing with professionals and not just mere pseudo hypnotherapy practitioners.

Spiders Cry Out Too When They Feel Good

2011-06-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, you would have to take note that this article is not for the very young readers in the world. The topic covered in this article is a bit sensitive and it may not suit the minds of the young ones. If ever read by someone of early age, parental guidance should be advised.

The moans you hear from your lady while you're having sex are usually indications of her feel good sensations while doing it. A following adage would usually follow that: "the louder the better", which more often than not is true. If she's really screaming off the charts then it may only mean two things - you're really digging in her spot or you're quite hurting her already with your load. Unless of course if you're partner is a professional faker, that's a different story already. Also, if she's sexually dysfunctional, then there's just nothing you can do about it.

Most of men would look for this kind of sensation to be felt by their women while having sex. It kind of makes them feel better about themselves regarding their performances. If his partner starts to get all cowboy wild, it fuels him even more to do more in the task at hand. That's just the natural way of things. It's a different story as well if you're just naturally born without the gift of pleasing partners. That one you really need some serious help there pal.

Apparently, this kind of sensation outburst mechanism doesn't only apply to human beings. There are certain animals in this world as well that manifest similar sexual outburst and the sensation it implies is still the same. Mammals are usually the type of animals that vocalize during intercourse. Probably, this is because mammals are of higher level of species than others and are more capable of sensing tactile perceptions.

However, there are these few exceptional animals that manifest this behavior. Despite their lack of physical trait to rationalize sensation, these animals are still able to identify the kind of feeling they are having as of the moment; be it pain or the sheer and utter bliss of the feeling of pleasure. One of these animals is the spiders. Yes, believe it or not, spiders do vocalize during sex and of very similar rationale as well.

Spider Squeals

According to recent findings in the study of spider behaviors during mating, it shows that spiders do also elicit vocalization patterns in relation to their sensation felt during intercourse. Female spiders of the Physocyclus globosus species, deliver high-frequency squeals while having sex to deliver a message to their partners so that they will know what to do while at it. These vocalizations are generally interpreted as either indications of pain or pleasure. Surprisingly, spiders are sexual creatures. And they feel it too!

Scientists labelled the spider sensation as "stridulations". It's often described as shrills like that of a sound of squeaky piece of leather and is related to the rhythmic motions and the squeezing taking place inside the female's genitalia while having intercourse.

The Process of Natural Selection

If you are aware about the theory of natural selection; just a recap though, it talks about the likelihood of survival of the stronger species over the weaker species in terms of coping with the changes that are taking place in the environment. And believe it or not, this same principle applies upon a spider's conception to their young.

A female spider is actually capable of storing sperms from different male mates at a time (this would naturally implicate that she's having more than just one partner) in her body. From there she then is able to choose which one from those stored sperms should fertilize her eggs. Now, the twist is this: If the male is able to squeeze enough inside the female's genitalia that it could make her squeal, he has higher chances of fertilizing the female's egg. So in other words, the better the male is in the intercourse process the more likely he is able to multiply his kin to the world.

However, there are certain occasions when a male will overdo the squeezing. The forceful action of the male may actually physically damage the female spider. If the male spider squeezes very hard or too long, the female spider squeals to signal the male spider to pick up the pacing.

How it Works

In order to produce squeaking sounds, the female spiders would scrap a portion of their pedipalp against a file-looking shape in the surface of their fangs.

A male spider's sexual organ is located near at the tip of its pedipalp. When having intercourse, the male inserts the tip inside the female's genital. There are certain muscles near the pedipalp that flex during the sexual process, thus creating rhythmic motions of squeezing inside the female's genital therefore making them cry.

In a research laboratory, scientists have mated 68 virgin female spiders of the p.globosus specie, with 2 males of the same species. They have furthered discovered that the amount of squeezes executed by the male spiders during the intercourse corresponds to the number of times the female squeals. Stridulations become more frequently increasing if the male fails to loosen the grip and squeeze in reaction to the female's previous plea.

The fortunate few obedient males that have consistently followed the indications told by their female partners during sex resulted to being able to produce more offspring than the others. It's as if that the squeezing process is actually a male spider's mechanism of propelling his sperms into the female spider's genital and deeper into the body so that it would increase the chances or the likelihood of fertilizing the female's eggs.

According to the study's findings, female spiders apparently prefer the paternity of the male spiders that are able to execute the process properly according to the indications foretold by their squeals. Females must have known that if they are going to allow the sperms of the better males to fertilize her eggs, she would bear offspring that will eventually be as good as their fathers.

Repairing Human Ligaments with Spider Silk

2011-06-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

The spider's silk actually serves many purposes to a spider's life. Therefore, it is of vital essence to a spider, that without, a spider may not survive at all. A spider's silk is used for protecting the egg sacs of newly conceived spiders in the world. They are there to serve as protection to the baby spiders from external dangers such as predators that might devour the unborn spiderlings, or to prevent any environmental occurrences that may lead to the fatality of the spider eggs. Another purpose of spider's silk is for creating spider dwellings, such as spider's web. Orb webs are perfect examples of sufficiently protected spider dwellings. At the same time the orb webs are also being used to capture preys that may pass over it. This way, the spider is able to sustain its daily existence. These are just few of the many things a spider would use its web for. However, spiders are not the only ones that can benefit from the silk that they produce. According to recent researches, a spider's silk has been found to have certain elements in them that may be use for human cellular repair and regeneration.

Empirically, a spider's silk thread is the strongest natural fiber on earth. Virtually, if a spider's thread is woven altogether to a greater and denser silk thread, it can withstand as much 100 tons of weight. Now, with the recent studies and researches conducted on a spider's silk thread, they have discovered that there may be a way to use the strongest natural fiber on earth for medical purposes.

However, there is a present deterrent to the acquisition and the usage of spider's silk thread for such purposes. The fact the spiders produce only a relatively small amount of silk thread in their bodies only, there wouldn't be any sufficient mechanism to mass produce the material. The only way to mass produce it is to synthesize the material through laboratory fabrication. But that as well is still far flung since the unique components of the silk are rare to find. And because it is rare to find, the possibility of mass producing will prove to be practically almost impossible.

The Human Ligament

As most of us know, human flesh is basically composed of amino acids and protein. These are simply the building blocks of life, and that would include as well the physical properties of the human body. Starting from the microscopic cells to the entire muscular structure, they are all composed amino acids and protein. This is the very reason as well why body builders would need the necessary intake of protein supplements in their entire routine system. Muscular development simply depends on the protein intake of an individual.

The same idea applies to cell regeneration after injuries. When a flesh or a muscle is torn, many of its components are also damaged. These components would include tendons, capillaries and ligaments. In order to regenerate these damaged tissues, protein is imperatively needed. An injured athlete would have to take the necessary dosage of protein for a faster cellular recovery. Along of course with, the proper medical treatments applied by a medical practitioner. This very essential component is found of abundant proportions in spider's silk.

Spider's Silk as a Cure

Believe it or not, a spider's silk is actually capable of curing a lot of wound problems in the human body. Scientists were able to discover a body of old folklore dating way back 2,000 years ago that elaborates on how spider's silk could actually serve as a medicine for combating infections, bleeding, and regenerating open wounds. A molecular biologist in the University of Wyoming, Randolph Lewis, discusses furthermore about the specific applications of the spider silk on human injuries. Shakespeare anecdotes even quotes about spider's web as a treatment to certain human conditions. Lines in the composition "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" wherein there is a line noted "Good Master Cobweb: If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you".

However, the much more recently conducted researches indicate that there are no known components of a spider's web that can actually kill bacteria and germs. Furthermore, scientists explained that in the general studies of animals, it revealed that the spider silk triggers less immunity reactions, thus rejecting most of the medical implants that were conducted.

Nevertheless, scientists continued to develop synthesizing and spinning spider silk threads in order to find hope in using it as a medical treatment. Fortunately, eventually their efforts have paid off when they revealed that the spider silk threads could actually be used as scaffolds for damaged tissues in order for it to effectively regenerate. Knowing these, therefore, the use of spider silks can be applied to world's most common muscular injuries such as sprains and muscle pains. They have further deduced the spider silk threads could actually be used as artificial tendons which should be a very good thing to a lot of individuals whom have experienced permanent muscular damage in their bodies.

Scientists have also further researched and developed the use of spider silks to apply them as suture threads to close up surgical openings and wounds. This would definitely prove efficient especially when doctors would have certain patients who don't like surgical scars afterward.

As of this moment scientists are already in a very of breakthrough in terms of innovating the spider's silk into something that can be medically useful and pretty soon, they will be able to find a way to fully apply the extent of the silk's usefulness. It won't be long when doctors would already be using spider's silk as surgical sutures and also, tendons and ligaments damage recuperation.

Furthermore, they are also continuously looking for ways to mass produce the silk material. Recently, they have tried out making use of alfalfa and certain proteins in goat milk in order to synthesize the natural material. Alongside, with that are the considerations of genetically cultivating the spider silk in laboratories by using the necessary proteins needed to create it.

Hunting Spiders Commonly Found In and Around Houses

2011-06-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

Spiders are grouped according to how they catch their food. The two groups are: (1) Wanderers/Hunters and (2) Web-builders. All spiders belonging to each group can produce their own silk but their means of using this silk varies depending on which group they belong. The hunters use their silk to move around and increase their mobility when chasing their prey while the Web-builders use their silk to make traps that capture their next meal. Moreover, because of the nature by which they capture their prey, the hunters are usually very agile and relative to the spiders in the other group, their eyesight is way better. One the other hand, Web-builders are more of the quite type. They do not roam around the house; they simply wait in undisturbed places waiting for their traps to catch their prey. Their eye sight is normally very poor and they simply rely on the vibrations that a prey makes when it hits the trap to figure out that their meal is ready. In this specific article, let's talk about the hunting spiders.

The Wanderers, a.ka. The Hunters

1. Jumping Spiders

These spiders are as common indoors as much as they are common outdoors. They hunt during daytime because they usually feed on insects that are active during this time. They are normally found in areas where sun exposure is very prominent, i.e. windows, walls and ceilings. You will be able to identify a Jumping spider based on its color and its size. It may be dark or light colored but all Jumping spiders have white markings all over them. They are compact-looking, with body length ranging from a fifth to half of an inch. Jumping Spiders are called as such because, of course, they jump. They are very agile and they move in irregular gait. They can hunt a prey that is many times larger than its size and they can clear visions of the objects surrounding it up to 8 inches in radius.

2. Wolf Spiders

They do not resemble a furry wolf in any way but they are called as such because of their hunting style. They can hunt during daytime but like a real wolf, they can also hunt at night for as long as the temperature allows them to. They usually live in the forest floors or in swamps but they can also live in houses, most especially in the garden surrounding the house. They are usually dark-colored, with visible grey, brown or white marking all over their bodies. They are a bit larger than the Jumping Spiders; about a quarter of an inch to 3/4 of an inch long.

3. Fishing Spiders

These spiders live with other names such as Dock Spiders, Water Spiders, etc. They got their random names because of their common habitats which are: lazy streams, ponds and swamps. Because of their liking for water, they can also be seen in houses close to water sources, or even in the garden where the vegetation is thick enough to keep the place moist. These spiders do not literally go fishing, but they do catch their prey underwater. They can slide across the water surface and dive into it once a prey is spotted. Fishing Spiders are considered to be the largest of all hunting spiders (although is rare occasions some spiders may grow bigger that the average size of a Fishing spider) having a body that measures an inch across. The legs of the Fishing Spider would look odd when they are on the water surface. Apart from their ability to quickly move on water surfaces without breaking the water tension, you can identify a Fishing Spider through its appearance. It is usually brown-colored or grey-colored with a white marking outlining its body. They outline in visible on its back. They can feed on tadpoles, small animals with vertebrates and small fishes too.

4. Sac Spiders

These spiders normally lurk on the ground so it is quite common these them to find their way into houses. They are also called Two-clawed because of the two very visible claws that they have. They use these claws to catch their prey. They are usually yellowish in color and are as small as the Jumping spiders; about one fifth of an inch to two of a fifth of inch in body length. They use their webs to catch their prey although they also use their silk to build homes where they can live into. When these spiders live outdoors, they usually roll-up leaves and weave it using their silk and use that construction as a retreat place. When they happen to get indoors, they would live in high places like the ceiling or the attic.

5. Crab Spiders

These spiders are very common outdoors and are rarely seen indoors. They might come close to a house because of the lawn or the garden surrounding the house but they will not want to enter into a house where food is scarce. They feed on insects that normally live in flowers, leaves and grasses. They are small spiders; about a tenth of an inch to almost half an inch. They come in a variety of colors like yellow, red, grey and brown. They are called crab spiders because of the appearance of their legs. First two sets of legs of a Crab Spider look like that of a crab, also being held out far to the spider's side. Unlike the other hunters or wanderers, Crab Spiders do not chase after their prey; instead they prefer to ambush the prey that unknowingly passes by the hiding place of the Crab Spider.

6. Gnaphosid Spiders

These spiders are perhaps the most unique ones in this list because of their name. Gnaphosid spiders come in many different families, one of which is the family of the Parson Spiders. Like all other hunting spiders, these spiders are not really common indoors but in rare cases, they still make it indoors. These spiders measure about half an inch across and they normally have grey colored abdomens and a brown body color.

The Life Cycle of a Spider

2011-06-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

Any organism in this world would have to undergo a particular life cycle until they reach their final form upon conception or as adults. This is just a natural way or process of development, fostering the needs of an organism in a given specific period of time. The natural order of development also implies a systematic approach to the needs of a creature. In other words, the process entails appropriation depending on the amount of the creature's development. Say for example, in humans, toddlers aren't able to produce reproductive cells for copulation and procreation because they don't need it yet. The only time they undergo full development of their reproductive system such that they will be already capable of reproduction is only when they have reached the adult stage. The same thing goes as well with most of the other creatures on earth and the appropriate development applies in all aspects of growth as well.

Spiders, as organisms undergo the same thing as well. Only that they have a different process to it. A spider's life cycle will comprise of four major stages: The egg stage, the time of the spider's conception on earth, larva stage, comparable to a toddler stage, the young spider, also known as a nymph or spiderling and the adult stage. Spider may be arachnids and not insects, they still undergo through a process called molting, wherein the organism sheds exoskeletons from time to time during growth. There are stages of molting, and in each and every stage, the spider undergoes certain developments and when they become spiderlings, they will look more like of miniature versions of the adult spider. This process is also called incomplete metamorphosis.

The Flow of Spider Conception and Growth

The Courtship and Mating Stage

Surprisingly, these little bugs know a thing or two about impressing ladies. Spiders do have to undergo a common process that we humans are very well aware of also as we do it ourselves, called courtship. As a spider's reproductive system matures upon its last molt, at such time the female spiders will have already developed fully functional ovaries and mature testes for male spiders, males will have begun searching for females for mating. While there are a very species of spiders that don't undergo through courtship, most of them however will have to go through the painstaking process of impressing their partners. The funny thing about their courtship stage is that it doesn't only serve as a mean of persuading the female spider to mate but also to dissuade it from eating him. To female spiders, everything that moves may be a prey up for grabs. If the male spiders don't execute a seemingly ritualistic dance, females may never be able to identify them as mating partners and would most likely devour them.

There are different ways of executing spider courtship depending on what species of spiders are involved. For example, the American tarantulas, involves an identification process in which a male would repeatedly touch the female's body. Often, the male would even communicate with the female already from a distance by using vibrations as signals. A wolf spider would use its legs to drum and send vibration signals through the ground. There are also certain species of spiders that send signal threads to the female spider's web. The male would then pluck the thread on a very specific rhythm to their species which would identify him as a creature of the same species and not some ensnared insect for dinner. If the female has already identified the male's signals and will become ready for mating, she will then send signals back.

Finding the right partner may prove to be a difficult task to some species of spiders. That's why there are often times when they get eaten because they wound up courting spiders of another species. Since spiders from different species wouldn't be able to identify them, they would most likely consider them as preys. Luckily, there are certain species of spiders the produce a substance called pheromones which helps the courtship process. A female spider of that species will release the pheromones to the air and through her silk threads. When a male detects the pheromones, he will immediately get excited even without the actual presence of the female spider.

Spiders with better eyesight would mostly rely on visual signals in order to identify their mates. Often, identification would entail performing specific dance rituals that would identify the males as mates and not prey. Each dance ritual is unique to a particular species of spider.

When the courtship process is successful, the male would then insert his sperm-loaded palp to the female spider's genital opening. Copulation among spiders could range from a few seconds to hours, depending on what species are involved.

Eggs and Brood Care

In most species of spiders, the female are able to determine when the fertilization process would take place. Normally, it would take weeks after mating for the eggs to become fertilized with the sperm deposited by the male spiders upon mating. This process helps the female decides whether the surrounding condition is already the best time for the conception to take place. Most spider species would lay hundreds of eggs at a time and some other larger species would even lay thousands in just a few minutes.

Spiders would often envelop their laid eggs in a silk sac cocoon for protection against possible predators. It also serves as insulation from the possible harsh changes in the environment. Some spiders would leave their eggs right away after laying them, while others would remain on guard until they hatch.

Brood care is often manifested in certain species of spiders, like the female wolf spiders. They attach their cocoon to their spinnerets and will carry them around anywhere they go until such time hatch. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings will then climb at their mother's back and would stay there for weeks until they are able to survive on themselves.

Growth and Development

Spider eggs would normally hatch inside the cocoon. When they hatch, they will take form of a white larva. They will remain that way for two to three weeks until it morphs into the stage of incomplete metamorphosis wherein they become small versions of the adult spiders.

Through a series of several molting the small spiderlings would eventually grow in size, given the proper nourishment and growth in time. Most of the "true" spiders would live only as long as 1-2 years. Tarantulas however, are an exception to that regular lifespan, as they can grow as long 20-25 years, particularly the female of the species. The male tarantulas live a relatively shorter life.

The Evolution of Spiders - How Arachnids Came To Be On Earth

2011-06-21T02:43:00.000-07:00

The Concept of Evolution

Perhaps all creatures on earth aren't what they were as they are now. At some point in time in the past, they must have looked differently in some way at least. And it wasn't only until eventually that they have changed form because of a naturally occurring compelling situation. This is the idea of natural organic evolution - a process that every creature on earth has somehow undergone at one point in time.

There are however certain species on earth that haven't undergone evolution, or that their evolution is quite negligible that they still do look the same as they were first conceived on the planet. Usually, these creatures that haven't undergone or have minor evolution are severely endangered or already extinct. The reason why this is the plausible scenario to organisms that have barely undergone evolution is because they haven't undergone evolution, they have failed to adapt in the natural selections over time. Evolution's purpose is to progress an organisms form in such a way that it will be able to blend in to the ever changing natural situations.

As time passes by, the environment changes, either become harsher or milder, and an organism would have to adapt to it in any way in order to survive, until eventually it will reach its ultimate form. Unless of course, the creature is already sufficiently formed as it is when it first came to earth, like for example, sharks. Sharks have not undergone through evolution because they apparently don't need to. They are very sufficient and perhaps efficient predators already in their original forms, hence evolution didn't take place. But for some others, they would have to or otherwise, they would have been long extinct.

However, not every organism on earth is endowed with the capability to evolve. This is the very reason why there are lots of creatures in the past that remained in the past. The process of eliminating organisms that haven't undergone evolution is called extinction. An organism may go extinct if it species have failed to compensate the change natural situations over time. Dinosaurs for example, have failed to sustain their generation because they have apparently exhausted their resources, thus leading them to migrate and eventually die in the transition.

However, there are some reptile species that evolved successfully, which eventually we now come to encounter as lizards, or snakes and what not. These are some of the successfully evolving species of time. There's no saying if what they are now are already their ultimate form though. Only time will be able to tell us whether if they will still evolve to another form or remain as they are. Human beings as well are perhaps, theoretically, not yet in their ultimate form. Who knows, when the time and environment deems necessary, we may have to grow wings in order to adapt to our surroundings. The process of evolution is uncertain, but more than half the time generally beneficial. And this is the very reason why spiders as well have undergone through it.

Arachnid Evolution

Spiders as organisms of earth have undergone through evolution. And considering their minute sizes, evolution if most likely necessary to them than any other species. Everything that they have now is a product of progressive and successful evolution. In return, they have become much more efficient hunters commensurate to their targets; the ultimate bug hunters of the era.

Spiders' evolution took place 400 million years ago. The first spiders that ever roamed the earth were relatively larger in size compared to what they are now. Still, the body of the first spiders were segmented. The only difference with the spiders segmented body before than today is that most of the spiders at present have non-segmented abdomens, while the spiders before have more than just single segmentations. There are certain species however, that remained to have an apparently relating segmented form as their predecessors. The spiders that belong to the suborder Mesothelae still display the same form abdominal segmentation as the first spiders. These spiders are also considered to be one of the primitive types of spiders that still roam the earth.

There are only a few fossil accounts uncovered for spiders. Perhaps the oldest spider fossil ever recorded in history was found in some prehistoric rocks in New York, dating way back to the Devonian Period (410 million to 360 million years ago). The fossil uncovered was surprisingly well preserved. The remarkable spider fossil was easily identified because of the presence certain common spider traits, particularly the spinnerets and chelicerae. There are also other fossil discoveries that dated way back in the Carboniferous Period (360 million to 290 million years ago). However, a fewer account of spider fossils were found that dated sometime during the Mesozoic Era (240 million to 65 million years ago).

On the other side of the topic, finding web fossils is a rather improbable scenario. Spiders' webs rarely present themselves as fossils in rocks. There are a few fossil discoveries, but they only contain bits and pieces of the entire thing. However, from those web-fossil discoveries scientists were able to deduce what kind of webs the first spiders produce in their time. Scientists have theorized that the ancestral spiders built much more irregular looking webs and they were most likely created near the ground. Furthermore, the scientists additionally deduced that the much more regular looking webs created on higher grounds (trees, taller plants, etc.) have only evolved later. Orb webs for example, may have only evolved later when spiders began hunting insects that thrive on the higher grounds. Some scientists have also theorized that the evolution of certain species have catalyzed the evolution of some other insects as well, and vice versa. In the attempt of some insects to escape ensnarement from ground lurking spiders, they may have developed wings in order to fly over their spider predators. At some time later, spiders have had developed aerial webs to catch insects that fly on higher ground. The idea is a compensating evolution for both species.

Top 5 Most Venomous Spiders in the World

2011-06-20T03:56:00.000-07:00

While it is true that most spider species are utterly harmless to humans, there are those certain few that will definitely catch our concern and prudence, even fear and therefore, we can't help but take them into consideration as well despite the former fact of spiders being generally harmless. There may be only a few species of spiders in the world that can facilitate fatality to human beings. However there are certain report accounts that these types of spider could still find their way in to human dwellings or anywhere where it is susceptible for human contact. This would make them as dangerous as they should be, despite their negligible population in this world.

A wise thing for humans to do when it comes to encountering spiders in their dwellings or anywhere is to be wary of their presence. You may not recognize at first, but the spider you are already looking into right now may be one of the most venomous ones. In order to avoid ignorance that could lead to incidental mortality, information dissemination is important. This is to aware people of the possible dealings they will have if they come across any of the most venomous spiders in the world; in order for them to be better off avoiding them for their own safety.

Although, most of the most venomous types of spiders are passive (do not attack when not being threatened), there are those that are highly aggressive and territorial. One must always be on the lookout for this type of spiders. An encounter with them will definitely assure a percent of a possibility of imminent attack. The effects of the attacks will differ depending on what species of spider have caused the bite. Some venomous spiders could only have bite effects limited to skin ulceration but there are those of course that could cause neuro-paralysis and even death. But even if the species of venomous spiders that only cause skin ulceration is not as worse as those their fatal counterparts, people would still have to be wary of them as they don't do ordinary skin ulcerations. The skin ulcerations they cause are often not negligible and would definitely cause considerable infections and the worsening case of the bitten individual may result to fatal complications. There are also spiders that have weird painful effects to humans, such as priapism. Priapism is a condition of prolonged penile erection to males, similar to the effect exhibited by Viagra just a bit longer, thus causing tremendous pain to the individual suffering from it. Clitorism is its female counterpart effect.

Here are the list of the top five most venomous spiders in the world and a picture for each one of them for easy identification:

1. The Black Widow

The black widow is perhaps the most famous of all the species of highly venomous spiders in the world. Perhaps because they are the most common ones found in human houses and establishments and also the easiest to identify. Despite its commonality, it's definitely something you wouldn't want to disregard once you see it. They can facilitate the most painful bite effects in the realm of spiders. The black widows are considered to be the most venomous spiders in North America. Its reputation is preceded with many accounts and reports of human deaths because of its bite. To identify of a black widow spider, look for a red hourglass mark on the abdomen. This is the most obvious way to identify a black widow. Though, the color of the hourglass mark may range from yellow to orange as well. The female black widows are relative larger to its male counterparts and are also the dangerous ones. Male widows are generally harmless. A black widow's bite is not painful in itself, but the after-effects and the symptoms that will follow will be like hell. Their venoms are neurotoxins which exhibit symptoms like back and abdominal pains, very severe muscle cramping, nausea, difficulty in breathing, profuse perspiration, hysteria, high blood pressure, and high fevers. The effects of the widow's venom have not been known to have long term effects but have had reported cases of death following after its symptoms.

2. Redback Spider

The redback spiders can be found almost everywhere in Australia. They also belong as well to the widow family commonly found in the American continents. Unlike its relative, the black widow, its red markings isn't found below its abdomen but above. Redback spiders are also black in color, but don't have glossy features as its relative. The redback spider also has a reputation that concerns with human fatality. It also induces the same kind of neurotoxin venom as that of a widow, thus the symptoms that follow after are more or less the same with that of a widow's bite. There are about 250 reported redback spider bites each year that are countered with antivenom treatments.

3. The Brown Recluse

This species of spider may not be as deadly as the others mentioned in this article. However, it still has a reputation to preserve and ought to be acknowledged - the reputation of being a flesh destroyer. The brown recluse can be identified through its brown upside down violin "fiddle-shaped" marking on top of its cephalothorax. The venom of this spider doesn't facilitate neurotoxins that directly affect the interior human system. Instead it causes extreme skin ulceration that if gone unchecked and worsens, could potentially lead to mutilation. At first, the bite would simply look like an ordinary bug bite, but after 24 hrs, swelling and blisters would follow after. Skin lesions would follow after. Each year, a lot of limb amputation reports are related to a brown recluse's bite.

4. The Tree-dwelling Funnel Web Spiders

In contrast to the widow spider family, the male of the species are the ones more deadly. Tree-dwelling funnel web spiders are indigenous to Australia and are mostly found in the eastern parts of the continent. Their venom is five times deadlier than that of a widow spider and if the bite is left untreated, it would definitely lead to death. An interesting thing about its venoms is that all the other animals in the world are apparently immune to it, except humans and monkeys.

5. Brazilian Wandering Spider (the Banana Spider)

Indigenous in the jungles of South America and are considered to be the most dangerous venomous spider in the world. With venom that can kill a full grown mouse with only a dosage of 0.006mg, they have succeeded the reputation of being the deadliest of them all. What makes this spider even more dangerous is their highly territorial and aggressive nature. This spider doesn't normally dwell in their webs but are found prowling in the jungle floors and could also be regularly found in human dwellings. They are also called "banana spiders" because locals would often find the dreaded spiders stowed away in banana crates. The serotonin levels of its venom are very high, thus causing tremendous pain upon a bite. Their venoms could also cause priapism to its victims.

The Many Uses of the Spider Web

2011-06-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

Spiders are one of the most flexible creatures ever to lurk in this planet. They can live anywhere, depending on their specie. They can be seen in the highest mountains or in the lowest shorelines. They can live in trees, in grasses, in mounds, in houses; pretty much everywhere really. Wherever there is water, soil, leaves or any kind of plant growth, spiders will be there. Overall, there are over 2500 species of Spiders found in US alone.

Spiders belong to the animal group called the arthropods, but they are not of the same classes. Spiders are not insects, they are classified as arachnids. Insects and arachnids differ in many ways. Anatomically speaking, the body of a spider in composed of two segments only while insects have three. Arachnids also have eight legs as compared to insects with six. All arachnids also have at least two pairs of simple eyes (some have four). Most significantly, spiders do not have wings and antennae which is the main determining physical characteristic of an insect. If we are to look for other animals which can be closely related to spiders, insects will not make it in the top list. Topping the list would be the ticks, scorpions and the mites.

One thing that really makes an arachnid a spider is the ability to produce and use webbings. Webbings are excreted by a special gland found somewhere at the tips of the spider's abdomen. The webbing leaves the gland in liquid form but it hardens as it is exposed to the air. The webbings, which can be closely related to the silk produced by silk worms, are used by spiders in many different ways. They use webbings to protect their eggs, to catch food, to defend themselves, to build their houses and to easily move around (just see how Spiderman does that).

1. Egg protection

Just like the Kangaroo, spiders carry their young around with them. But instead of putting their offspring in a pouch, spiders put them in a sac made of webbings and stick the sac on their abdomen. However, most spider species do not carry the sac around. For increased mobility in searching for food, spiders would rather stick the sac somewhere very secluded. These eggs will not be easily spotted by insects and other creatures that would probably feed on them because the webbing will be sufficient to support them even when stuck on the underside of a wooden junction. Upon hatching, the spiderlings (which look pretty much the same with the adult spider, only smaller) will tear open the webbing after a series of molts.

2. Food catching

Spiders use their webbings to weave traps and catch small insects for food. Since insects are very much attracted to light, spiders usually make their traps close to a light source. Insects that fall on such traps usually end up being eaten or "wrapped" for future use. If we do not include size in the equation, it can be said that spiders outnumbered all predators combined when it comes to population in a given hunting area.

3. Defense

Spiders can kill using their webs too. They can fire their webbings at high velocity are hit their target which is inches away. The webbing will immobilize the enemy or worse, it can obstruct their breathing and kill them because of suffocation. Either way, the spider can get its kill.

4. House-building

Spider webs are quite common in places where external disturbance in least. In such cases, spiders can build larger and vaster houses through their webbings. In places where there are activities that can constraint spiders from building obvious houses, they can build less conspicuous webs. These webs are so translucent that they are very difficult to notice if sunlight and dust are not around to help the detection.

5. Mobility

You might have not seen a spider in action just yet, but if you have seen how Spiderman uses his web to move around then you should have gotten the idea already. Many spiders do not rely on traps to catch their preys; some just can't live off without the adventure. Hunting spiders make use of their webbings to increase their mobility and catch their preys. They can jump from one high place to another and end up unscratched because of the help of their webbings. Even the non-hunting species make use of their webbing for mobility too. Through their webbings, they do not have to walk on the ground where predators are too many to evade. Thus, spiders make use of their webbings to escape from predators.

The Spider and the Man

Although we hardly feel it, humans are greatly benefitted by the existence of spiders. They feed on so many insects, worms and even on smaller spiders which could have otherwise been pests to humans. It is also worth noting that spiders do not interfere much with human activities, in fact, they dislike human interaction and would run away once they spot humans. Spider bites are also very rare and in almost every instance, the bite only happened after the spiders are provoked. Spider bites are not even lethal, even those made by poisonous spiders like the black widow, spruce, etch. The Tarantula is another story because they do not even live in places where humans inhabit. Thus, cases that involved the Tarantula can be excluded in the general house pest spider statistics.

It can be safely said that the dangers usually associated to spiders are mostly exaggerated. Many of those who think that spider elimination is necessary just have spider phobias or inexplicable fear to spiders. Records show that spiders are able to kill two humans every decade. Moreover, spiders do not infest houses in larger populations too. So, it is really quite impossible for spiders to make any significant damage to the house or to the health of the people living in the house. However, if the homeowner is really afraid of spiders, there are easy to follow spider removal tips which he or she can follow without any problem.

The Brazilian Wandering Spider

2011-06-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

A dead Brazilian Wandering Spider
(c) SpiderzRule.com

Ever wondered who's the king of all in the spider kingdom? Have you ever thought it's the tarantula because of its sheer size and strength? While that could true there are other considerations you should take into consideration. Having both size and strength attributes, does it already make them the scariest therefore, the rightful ruler of all? How would you truly define scary? Is it those that are big and fury looking? Or is it those that can deliver a fatal blow with just one bite? If you are still thinking that tarantulas are the top of the food chain, think again, because this one will truly be the incarnation of your living nightmares on spiders - the Brazilian Wandering spider.

Unlike tarantulas whose venoms are of negligible potency levels, thus making the spider generally harmless to humans, the Brazilian wandering spider is really a different story. Its size may not be as big as that of a tarantula's, which is also considered as the largest species of spiders, the Brazilian wanderer's size isn't something that would go unnoticed as well. With a length that can go as long as 4-5 inches across, you would still definitely worry a lot when you find this prowling on your house floor.

The Brazilian wandering spider is also often called as "the banana spider". This is because certain locals as to where this spider is indigenous have reported cases of finding the fiendish creature stowing away in fruit boxes, particular in banana crates during exportation and importation travels.

Just as its name implies, Brazilian wandering spiders are aggressive hunters of the dark. They prowl the jungle floors actively searching for its prey and once it gets its prey, it will surely have a sealed faith with death. Spinning webs for entrapping prey or stalking and ambushing the victim don't work for a Brazilian wandering spider. It prefers to take on a prey, no matter how strong or large it, on the spot. Almost no one escapes the bite of a Brazilian wandering spider, even humans. Its venom is so potently poisonous that if the human bitten is left untreated he will surely die with no more than 24 hrs. Thankfully, in year 2004, scientists were already able to develop antivenom to counter the effects of the neurotoxin venoms induced by this spider. But the people bitten before that time were really truly unfortunate. The name Brazilian wandering spider is actually a generic name given to those eight spider species belonging to a genus called "Phoneutria", a Greek word for "murderess". Come to think - the spider definitely deserves its name. A common misconception would often say that giant spider's webs in certain wet and or damp forests are created by the banana spiders over the years. This is completely false.

There are a lot of spider species in the world who prefer being always on the roll, hunting on the ground rather than spinning webs to ensnare flying insects or ambushing smaller animals when an opportunity opens up. Usually, most of the spiders that execute this kind of hunting method are those that have considerable size and strength and or have very potent venom in them, enough to facilitate immobility of death to its prey right away with just one bite. The banana spider belongs to this kind of spiders.

The Defensive Posture of the
Brazilian Wandering Spider

Such spiders can be readily identified by their physical appearance and behavior. Usually, they have scarlet red hairs covering their gigantic fangs. They also have a peculiar behavior. They execute a defensive posture by standing on their back legs, and raising their front legs and waving them in a seemingly scratching motion as if fending you off. This behavior is a good way to identify such spider species. Even these spiders are afraid of humans; however, they will never inhibit themselves from aggressively attacking anything that threatens them, which includes you, making them even more dangerous to encounter, lest to approach.

There are two species of the Brazilian wandering spider which are the most responsible in among all the human bites reports. They are regularly found in the highly populated places in the south-eastern parts of Amazon and Brazil. Most of the reported bites from these spiders are due to the fact that they are active at night and conceal themselves on daytime in anything that can be used for cover. This could either be some pile of withered leaves, tree branches and figs, fallen logs, item crates, shoes, boxes and cloth cabinets in people's dwellings.

However, there are very recent researches that have discovered that 30% of the bites coming from this spider have no venom in them, and another 30% injects only a very small, thus apparently negligible dosage. This simply means that the aftermaths of each bite could range from simple puncture pricks to utter poisoning. The Australian funnel-web spiders, a close relative to the banana spiders, inject the same dosage of highly potent venoms in their every bite. This would somehow make them virtually more dangerous, although, both of the spider's venom will both need immediate medical attention and treatment.

In the 2007 Guinness World Book of Records, the Brazilian wandering spider has been cited as the most poisonous spider as being the most responsible to human casualties and deaths due to a spider bite. According to studies, the spider possesses the most potent neurotoxins among all the other spiders that possess it. With only 0.006mg of its neurotoxin, it can already deliver certain death to a full grown mouse. A great amount of neurotoxin dosage from its venom won't be necessary to finish off an adult human being.

The Brazilian wandering spider can be identified by its brown color. It is also hairy, very much like an American Wolf spider. A bite from this spider would really be awfully painful, considering the high levels of serotonin it induces in its venom as well. The venom also causes priapism or prolonged erection to its victims making the symptoms more unbearable. This component of their venom has been studied to isolate in order to use it as a medical solution to erectile dysfunctions and certain cases of impotency.

How to Deal with Spiders at Home?

2011-06-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

It is quite difficult to assess spiders in the context of our homes. These little creatures can be considered a friend or a foe depending on which the homeowner values best. As a friend, spiders can protect the household from the diseases brought by the insects on which they feed on. Spiders feed on flies and mosquitoes that could have bitten you or anyone in your family. If spiders are big enough, they can become an effective deterrent for mice and cockroaches to ever infest in your house. However, as a foe, spiders can cause so much distress to someone who has a phobia on spiders. Spider phobia is very common to people that at least 1 in every 5 has this inexplicable fear on spider. Moreover, when accidentally provoked, spiders can bite humans including infants and pets which can be very dangerous at times.

Thus, when it comes to spider extermination, it is really up to the homeowner if he or she will find it necessary and important. Either the benefits of the spiders are considered to be more heavily-weighted or the possible effects to their venom when their bite is more significant, only the homeowner can tell for himself or herself. But, if ever you choose to exterminate them, here are some things that you might want to do:

1. Stay calm. You will never get anything done if you do not maintain your temperament. Remember that there is point screaming or running around the house, especially when the reason for such an action is a simple spider sighting! So, just like what your Momma used to tell you, take it easy, take a deep breath and proceed to what you need to do.

2. If you want to know how to fight your self-proclaimed enemy, then, you should know the kind of enemy that you are dealing with. Take time to observe the spider. You don't need a magnifying glass to do that since the more important data that you need to gather are their location, their specie and their approximated number. Of course, do not come close enough for the spider to feel your aggression, if that happens, expect to get retaliation through a bite.

3. Research. Now, if you have seen which spider lives in your house and you have really decided that you want to kill that spider and its kin, then you will need to make a research on that spider specie. The venom released in spider bites varies depending on the specie of the offending spider. For example, if you have seen a friendly house spider like the Giant House Spider, you might want to reconsider doing your plan. Some friendly spiders actually feed on venomous and dangerous spiders that could have harmed you and your family. Other spiders that do so are the Wolf Spider and the Daddy Long-legs. But if you have identified to spider specie to be venomous and poisonous, then you can decide if professional spider extermination might be necessary. Examples of dangerous spiders are the Black widow, the Brown Recluse and the Hobo.

4. To immobilize the spider, you can use a bottle container (preferable a seltzer bottle) that can release water at high speed. A pressurized container usually works best because at high pressure water can gush out of the container at an incredulous speed. You are to use this pressure to kill the spiders without the use of any chemicals or poisons. You can also use a long staff to poke the spider on high walls and ceilings until they fall on the floor. Almost immediately, spray the fallen spider with water again until it dies or until it won't be able to move anymore. If you feel that the best way to kill the spider with less effort is to whack it and squish it, then, do so. Just remember that spiders are tough so you might as well want to make sure that you have indeed killed the spider before you do step number 5.

5. Of course, you need to clean your mess. If you squished the spider when its fluids should have dripped on the floor so you need to wipe that. You might want to use detergent to be able to do that. After everything is done, sweep the floor and buff.

What if I don't want to kill spiders?

We hear this quite too often when we meet a person who don't want a spider at home but still can't stand the guilt of having to kill "helpless" creatures. In special cases like that, you can actually make use of organic spider control methods to ward off spiders but not really kill them. Here's how:

Tobacco

Mix a pack of pure tobacco to a gallon of boiling water, mix well and wait until the mixture cools. Remove the tobacco particles by straining. Add half a cup of lemon scented dishwashing soap into the tobacco juice you have just made and use a sprayer to treat the surrounding environment of your house with the mixture. Spiders will evacuate your house in a matter of days and in most cases, they will no longer come back to ever bother you again.

Lemon

Spiders taste through their legs. So, they literally taste their tracks. If you really don't want to live with them, dust every corner in your house where spider may crawl with lemon pledge. Common areas would be the windowsills and the doorframes. In a few days, spiders will realize that you are not easy to live with simply because they will be tasting lemon every time they are in your house, and they hate lemon so much.

There are other means to ward off spiders off your property. You can do a quick research about it via the internet search engine if you don't have the time or the energy to go to a book store and buy a book about it. You can also read through my old posts, you might find some things that might interest you.

The Tarantula

2011-06-17T02:46:00.000-07:00

The name tarantula is the name commonly referred to the group spiders that are hairy and often very large in size. Tarantulas are among the group of spiders that don't spin webs and prey on the ground. The main of diet of tarantulas are on smaller insects and fellow arthropods, and they normally catch them through stalking and ambushing them. The largest types of tarantulas are capable of capturing animals that are often larger than themselves; animals such as birds, mice, and lizards which are sometimes, twice than their own size. A myth often follows tarantula's presence. Because of their intimidating physical characteristics, people fear their presence thinking that they are harmful to human beings. However, despite their scary outlook, they are absolutely harmless to humans. In even some residences and parts of the world, tarantulas are domesticated or eaten. But recent protocols to protect environmental elements have prohibited such actions towards tarantulas in the world as it may disrupt the natural balance. These fearsome and bulky looking spiders are commonly found in the tropical areas and as well as in the desert areas in the world. As of today, 800 species of tarantula spiders are already identified. All of them are classified under the family of Theraphosidae or also interchangeably called theraphosids.

Name Origin

The name "tarantula" actually originated from a town in Italy called Taranto. The name was formerly used to refer to some unidentified classes of spiders found in the areas of Europe. However, when it came to America, the name was already immediately used to refer to American theraphosids found in naturally in the continent. In Africa tarantulas are sometimes referred to as baboon spiders due to their baboonish appearance (due to considerable hair presence very much like of baboon monkey). There are certain theraphosids in Asia that are called earth tigers or bird spiders. In Australia, they are also referred differently; names such as barking and whistling spiders are their most common names. Also, theraphosids across the world would also have differing names depending on which part of the world they are located.

Habitat

Members of the tarantula spider family are often commonly found in the warm areas of the planet, particularly in deserts and dry lands which are greatly located in the tropical and subtropical regions. Some tarantula families are also found in the rainforests and most of them inhabit the grounds. However, despite their ground inclinations, tarantulas are impeccable climbers and some other types even are arboreal.

Somewhere in the western hemispheres, tarantulas also populate the areas of United States down to Mexico, to Central America and most of South America. These zones are where the straights of desert areas are present. In West Indies as well, tarantulas are found to have inhabited and of course, in Africa, certain parts of Asia, and a few particular regions of Australia.

In United States, there are about 30 species of tarantulas thrive in existence. They are more predominantly found in the arid regions of West to Southwest. These areas are inclusive of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Some species are also found in the far north like Oregon, and also in Missouri, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Louisiana.

Physical Definition

Tarantulas as spiders are in several ways different to insects; beginning with their body structures. All arachnids have two segmented body parts, the abdomen and the cephalothorax which is the upper part of the arachnid's body, comprising of the head and forelegs. The abdomen part of the arachnids is where the silk producing glands and spinnerets are located. Spiders unlike insects have no antennas.

Tarantulas are actually much more primitive versions of spiders. They are even classified under a suborder Mygalomorphae, a group of arachnids distinctively different what they call now as "true" spiders which are classified under suborder, Areneomorphae. Tarantulas, along with their relative species, the Trapdoor spiders, have two-pairs of gill looking book lungs while species that fall under the true spiders' species only have one. Another distinct characteristic of tarantulas are their jaws called "chelicerae" equipped with humongous fangs the bite downwards. This makes them relatively different to true spiders which have pincer-like fangs that work horizontally. True spiders are also more often dependent to the potency of the venoms they carry to subdue their prey rather than their brute strength which Tarantulas are distinguished with. Tarantulas also have only two spinnerets rather than normally three.

Tarantulas are known to live longer than any other types of spiders on earth. Female tarantulas could virtually live as long as 25 years granted without exterior factors that could cause sudden or indirect death; such a utter dramatic contrast to the lifespan of true spiders which could only last for 1 to 2 years. Male tarantulas however, live a relatively shorter lifespan of 5 to 10 years.

The tarantula species vary considerably in size and reputably includes the largest of spiders in the world. Mature female tarantulas are variably larger and bulkier than male tarantulas. A typical example to this is the North American desert tarantulas which are often found in the western parts US. The female of this species will reach 4 inches of leg span and a 2.8 inch long body. However, the largest species of tarantulas on earth, the goliath bird-eating tarantulas will have females with a leg span of 11 inches could weigh up to 120 g or 4oz. They are by far the largest spiders in the planet.

Humans and Tarantulas

There are certain places in the world wherein people eat tarantulas for food. There are certain tribes in the Amazon that roast live tarantulas and would even consider eating their eggs. Also in Cambodia, there certain species of tarantula that are friend and eaten.

Tarantulas can also be considered as pets. Domesticating Tarantulas had been a trend starting the mid 1980s. A particular species of tarantulas, the Mexican red-kneed tarantulas have become a particular favorite to tarantula owners due to its bright colors and docile nature. But over times, petting tarantulas were banned as it can possibly threaten the wild population to extinction.

Taking a Close Look at a Spider's Construction

2011-06-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

If there's anything synonymous to the name spider in itself, it would be none other than the silk they produce. There is no spider existing in this world that doesn't produce silk. While spider species may not create or spin silk into webs, all of them would have a use of the silk they produce in more ways than one. That is how vital and essentially significant a spider's silk is to their very existence. There are many variations of ways on how a spider uses its silk. A spider may use its silk to protect itself from larger spider-eating predators, or to protect its young from them. Almost all spiders use their silk for their locomotion, such as swinging around from one location to another, or to dangle themselves in case they would have to put themselves down on the ground. A spider could also use its silk to retract itself immediately in case of sudden danger that might come by. And of course, the coverage of a spider's silk usage would extend to the mechanisms of catching their prey. How different types of spiders use their silk to catch their prey would vary. A type of spider would create/weave orb webs to catch small flying insects with them. There are jus unlimited possibilities as to how a spider could use its web.

The Silks, Threads and Webs of a Spider

All spider species in the planet produce silk that is composed of protein fibroin; an innate mineral found in a spider's body. This mineral is the same raw material used by silkworms to produce their own silk; silkworms are the larvae stage of particular silk moths. A single spider alone would be able to have eight different types of silk glands in its body (particularly in the abdomen). Each type of silk gland would produce a different type of silk that is also with different properties. For example, one of a spider's defence mechanisms is to leave a silk dragline behind it as they move along. The reason why there is such mechanism is that for them to be able to immediately retract themselves in case of sudden danger or a safety line for it to use in case when it has to climb back up on a higher location. Other silk glands will create cocoon threads that will serve as blank as well as protection to the newly laid eggs. And of course, another gland will produce the silk used to ensnare and capture a prey. All of the silk used for the different purposes mentioned above vary from each other.

Spider's silk is not much in size. It could only range from .9 to 1 micrometer or 0.001 mm in diameter. A spider's silk is also very light. A 20 meter produced silk from a spider would only weight about one over a thousand of a gram. But even if the spider's web is very light, it doesn't diminish in quality in anyway. As a matter of a fact the material can be as strong as nylon thread but way more elastic. The combination of both strength and elasticity is the perfect component for making a web. The web made out of spider's silk threads would be strong enough to withstand any relatively considerable impacts on it and elastic enough so that it wouldn't tear.

Types of Webs

A few people may be aware but not all webs are homogenous. There are different types of webs that different species of spiders produce. One of the most prominent webs to human knowledge is the seemingly circular orb webs which are often created by a lot of species of spiders, including house spiders which happen to have more human encounters. Orb webs are quite a wonder of nature. If you take a closer and attentive look at an Orb web, you will come to notice how it is intricately created; how its outer framework serves as a support to a continuous spiralling silk threads emanating from the center. There are other web-types that are much more irregular in shape as certain type of spiders build flimsy looking webs to make it more difficult for their prey to escape. There are certain species of common house spiders that create funnel webs with flattened silk sheets to serve as a retreat from danger or in case of rest. Cobweb spiders create more irregularly shaped webs with stickier threads at the bottom to effectively catch their prey. A sheet web spider on the other hand creates a mundane looking flat thread sheet for it to hang itself.

Spider's webs are often found on the ground or in places of low vegetation. But orb webs could span great distance from tree branches to bottom in order to cover more area in catching flying insects and others. The size of a web may depend on the size of the spider that made it. The tightness and wideness of the web's mesh depends on the type of prey it captures.

Building the Web

A spider's web as intricate as it is would have to be tediously done. A complex process as this would take spiders some time. But there are other types of spiders that are able to create webs within 30 minutes or less. What is more amazing is that spiders normally fabricate their webs at night utterly relying in their sense of perception upon construction. Spiders have their different process in building their webs, depending on what species or the location and situation the spider is currently into. Orb web weaving spiders would normally begin by spinning threads silk and letting themselves carried by the air. From then, other silk threads are spun to create a Y-shaped framework, which is the standard to orb web weaving spiders. And then the spider goes to the hub (the midpoint of the Y-shaped framework) and begins spinning threads that would eventually spiral outwards of the Y-shape framework. The auxiliary spiral created by the spider as scaffolding.

Spiders Commonly Found in Homes and How to Control Them

2011-06-16T02:24:00.000-07:00

There may be a lot of spider species in the planet comprising of both the venomous and the non-venomous ones and as well as the domestic and wild ones. But only 2,500 species of spiders are commonly found at homes and most of them aren't dangerous at all. They are too docile that most domestic spiders are not even capable of penetrating their fangs to human skin, therefore there is definitely less to worry about. The only thing that a homeowner has to be worried about with spiders inhabiting their homes, is the fact that when spiders dwell along with them, especially if there are too many, things get really messy and therefore, chores and sanitation should be done immediately to restore the cleanliness inside the house.

Another thing about spiders is that they have very secretive habits both domestic and wild ones alike. That's why they are normally encountered by humans or come in contact in anyway, as they remain peacefully hanging around the dark and or secluded places inside the house. The only time one begins to notice their presence when their population have grown.

One way to conspicuously distinguishable characteristic between an indoor and outdoor spider is their color. Typically, spiders that dwell inside the house have mundane plain colors and are relatively smaller. They're also less hairy and more agile in motion. On the other hand, spiders found outside human dwellings both garden and the wild, are more brightly colored and such coloration are usually indicators of how venomous they are. However, the fact still remains that their effect on humans are still negligible. Also, spiders found outside the home are often larger in size and most of them are hairier.

Although, there can often be occasions wherein spiders from outside may find their way inside the human household and might as well dwell there. Their presence would often scare a lot of house members because of their brightly colored and larger sized characteristics which makes them quite more intimidating than those that were regularly found inside the house. Another possibility is the incurrence of some very venomous spiders inside the house, like the black widow, brown recluse and hobo spiders which are reportedly dangerous to humans. These types of spiders are also often found not only in homes but as well as abandoned buildings where there are dark and dry places and office places. They like to dwell on locations like abandoned construction debris' recesses and unused ventilation pipelines where they remain undisturbed by humans. That is why, the usual sort people at risk for a venomous encounter with any of these types of spiders are those that work on construction and carpentry and sometimes maintenance. They are more expose to them since it's the nature of their job.

Listed below are representatives of the families most commonly found within a human territory and a brief explanation of their type:

Cobweb Spiders

This is perhaps one of the most common home dwelling spiders found all over the world. Cobweb spiders are small in size, typically less than 1/2 of an inch lengthwise. Their colors are usually grey, brown, tan, or pale yellow and have no any distinctive markings in their body. One thing that would make them easily identifiable is their inability to create regular shaped webs and these are normally found in windows and curtains and in the ceiling corners where it's far from human reach during chore activities. The webs often accumulate dust over time since they usually remain unnoticed by humans for a very long time.

Yellow House-Spiders

This type of spiders is not normally found inside the house. They are usually located in the garden dwelling in some leaf shrubs and smaller plants. However, there are also times that yellow house spiders would dwell inside the house but not very often as cobweb spiders do. Report accounts have that these spiders do bite with consequences of pain and skin necrosis.

Wolf Spiders

These types as well are not normally found indoor. They normally dwell in gardens or in some grassy bushes outside the house. They're physical characteristics would make easily distinguishable. Just like that of a wolf, wolf spiders are hairy and large, and they are very actively agile in motion. Wolf spiders wander a lot in search for food source, and consequentially because of that, they find their way inside human dwellings sometimes. These spiders are normally not aggressive but they can and will bite if they feel threatened.

Jumping Spiders

Sizes of jumping spiders could range from very small, small and medium. They are quite hairy and usually black in color. There are times however that they bear distinct spots of red and orange in their abdomen. Jumping spiders are sparingly both outside and inside the house. If they are found inside the house, they are usually found in the windows or in the doors, transferring locations through short and very sudden jumps.

Orb Weavers

Theses ones barely go unnoticed because of their size. They are highly conspicuous not only to their size but to the orb webs that they create in order to ensnare both smaller and larger sized preys that will pass their way. Commonly, the webs are created on trees and shorter plants in the garden where they could ensnare more insects that would accidentally blunder into their orb webs. These spiders may be quite large in size but no matter how intimidating they look like, they are absolutely harmless to humans.

One of the most important consideration for spider control is to be able identify whether the spider normally dwells inside or outside the house. If you are able to know this, you will be able to easily identify which needs immediate addressing first and which one can be condone. Next consideration is to always implement sanitation inside the house to ensure that spiders will never go anywhere near the house at any time so make sure to do your chores now.

Fascinating Stuff About Spiders

2011-06-16T02:12:00.000-07:00

Spiders are not all that creepy and gross. They may infest human habitations a lot and could really cause quite a nuisance to anyone but they too have their good side that's truly worth appreciating for.

Spiders are also creatures created by God and they have a purpose for their existence in this world. They commensurate the full cycle of the web of life, therefore they are crucially important to the holistic balance of the ecosystem and consequentially, to the world. The world without spiders will be an infested world; full of bugs and pests and with no subclass animals to deal with them. There may be other animal insects in the world that consume smaller bugs, but without spiders, the force to control them would be less potent and could result to catastrophic outcomes to the entire natural balance. One way or the other, spiders have to be persevered. There are even rare spiders species that are seriously endanger of extinction but still some people are still hunting them down.

Most people would think that there's nothing they can do salvage the situation about spiders. Some are even indifferent that they still continue to execute spiders through pest fumigation. Fumigation is quite a severe method of destroying spiders for they don't only kill specific few spiders that live only in the house, but they're effects would also include other spiders that are outside the house, which happens to be only living peacefully in their natural habitats.

There are many little ways that you can do in order to save spiders. You need not have to be some environmental activists, lobbyists, or a senator to do something about the depreciating situation of spiders in the world. One way to do about it is to dispose properly of spiders that infest the house. Such ways can be done without killing or harming spiders in any way. A helpful tip would be not to use pesticides in shooing away spiders outside the house but instead, you can make use of net mechanisms to manually capture spiders and eventually throw them away outside of the house. Just make sure though that the spiders are thrown far away enough that distance would impede them from ever getting back into your house. It is also important to use containers that won't incidentally kill them. They have to be safe placed safely during the transition from your house to the place where you are going to throw them.

Another way to save the species of spiders that are endangered is through information drive campaigns to aware people of the debilitating situation of some spider species. That's not necessarily accomplished through rallies and what not, but through subtle production of media such websites that foster and deliver information about the fascinating facts about spiders and their importance to the entire environmental system. This way, you don't only educate other people about interesting facts about spiders but you also awaken their awareness to be vigilant towards not only to the spiders' dying existence but as well as those that suffer from the same hapless situation.

In this article, you will find out more about the fascinating facts about spiders and hopefully it would foster awareness from you to take part in the fight on preserving endangered species like the spiders.

Here are top 7 of the most fascinating facts about spiders:

1. Spiders are in several ways unlike insects. One of those characteristics that differentiate spiders from insects is the fact that spiders' body are composed of two parts. The cephalothorax and the abdomen. All the spiders in the world, from tarantulas to black widows, to fish catching spiders in the water share the same trait. The cephalothorax is comprised of the spiders' eight eyes, palps, and fangs. The spinnerets of the spider, which are glands being used to produce silk in order to create spider's webs, are found in the abdomen of the spider. A pedicel then combines the two segments of the spider's body giving the spider an apparent waist.

2. All Spiders are venomous except one family. Venoms are very useful tools for spiders. They use them to paralyze then subdue their prey for easy eating. Since they don't have enough physical machinery to battle their way to the prey's immobility, they have to use their venoms. Venom is induced upon the bite. It flows from the poison glands of the spider through their hollow fangs. Effects of venom to the prey would range from paralysis to skin necrosis. The family of spider called Uloboridae, are the only exception to all spiders. They don't possess poison glands.

3. Spiders may be herbivore at times if there's no longer anything to eat but all of them are born predators. Their instinct is to hunt and capture prey in order for them to feed and exist. Larger species of spiders could feed from even larger forms of animals such small birds.

4. Spiders can never digest solid food. Spiders would have to turn its food into liquid food before it can ever digest. When they eat their prey, they excrete enzymatic saliva that destroys the prey's flesh until the spider will be able to suck in the organic juice from the prey.

5. There is no spider in this world that doesn't produce silk. The silk that they produce is of vital importance to their existence. Hunting for food would prove to be very difficult for them if they don't produce silk. Silk isn't only produced to capture preys, but they are also use to protect their next generation. Egg-sacs are enveloped with spider silk in order protect them from possible predators.

6. Admittedly, all spiders produce silk, but not all can spin webs. For example, the wolf spiders don't create web to capture their prey. Instead, they stalk their victims and ambush them when they get the opportunity to do so.

7. Male spiders are always in risk of being eaten by their partners after mating. Especially if the female counterpart is quite hungry. In order to avoid being eaten, male spiders perform a ritualistic dance in order for them to be identified as mating partners and not meals.

More About Spiders and Some Household Types

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In truth, there are a lot of spider species that exist on earth. They are found in almost everywhere, from mountain tops top to sea waters, even to residential human houses. In U.S., only 2,500 species are found inside human dwellings, posing threat and nuisance to the household members. These types of spiders however, have to be dealt with accordingly to safeguard the homes of everyone.

On Spiders

Spiders are much like that of insects which belong to a larger group of animals called arthropods. However, they remain to be slightly different to insects in several levels of characteristics. One major difference of a spider to an insect is that spiders have eight legs, while most of the insect classes only have six. Spiders are also identified easily by their bodies which are comprised of two segments, the cephalothorax and abdomen. Along with their legs are also their eyes, wherein a spider would have normally eight eyes, except for certain types of species like the brown recluse which only have six equivalent sized eyes. Insects on the other hand only have six eyes, but of course, there are certain insects as well that will have more than just six. Moreover, spiders also lack the presence of wings and antennae. Hence, this would make spiders more related to scorpions, mites, and rather than with insects. A harvestman is another type of insect that is very much related to spiders in their physical appearance. However, they are still classified as insects due to intrinsic qualities that identify them as one.

The Very Useful Silk

The key characteristic to spiders that would make an individual easily identify them is their capability to produce silk in order to construct webs that serve at the same time as their dwelling or predator mechanism. Silk is produced by spiders through two special glands located at the tip of their abdomen. Silk is excreted as a liquid from the glands and when exposed to air, it would immediately solidify and when spun together becomes now what we call as spider's web. A spider's web has many purposes to a spider and of great importance to their very existence. As earlier mentioned, a web is used to capture a prey. Web traps like what Tarantulas construct under desert holes is just one of the many examples of how spiders use their web to trap their prey. Of course, that is then compounded with their venom which is used to paralyze their victims. The silk is also then used to construct web dwellings or shelters for spiders where they stay for some time in their life waiting for a catch or a helpless prey ensnared by the sticky substance. Another purpose to a spider's silk is to use it for locomotive purposes like dangling over woods and transferring to one place to another as well as to parachute themselves when they would have to come down from a high place like a tree or tall plant. Spun amounts of silk are also used as egg sacs in cases of spider conception. Egg sacs are made to protect the eggs from external pressures like the wind or rainwater, as well as to camouflage the eggs from other dangerous predators.

How Eight-Legs are Born

Spiders upon conception will hatch through eggs. The egg sacs are normally carried by female spiders or sometimes, it is tucked away on particular safe spots, free from the dangers of predation. Spiderlings or young spiders are replicas of an adult spider only smaller. This simply means there is no significant to a young and an adult spider apart from their size. Spiderlings grow through a series of spider molts. Spiders normally don't live too long. Their lifespan could only last for only one to two years. But without any form of external pressure or interference, they could live longer than how long they are expected. A certain spider was discovered by scientists has lived long enough to reach 6 meters in size. Spiders are cold blooded invertebrates. That is why during cold weather or conditions, their activities are lessened and even curtailed to some extent.

Contributions to Humans and Ecology

If not regarded as pests, spiders are actually quite helpful to the human race. They are often considered as pest control mechanisms in themselves. Since they feed on smaller insects, pest bugs like termites, flies, mosquitoes, centipedes are just some of their regular meals either in the forest or inside the house. Unfortunately, when they have come to that extent where they have practically overpopulated inside the household, they are then considered already as pests.

Spiders as Predators

Spiders are powerful predators. In fact, there are even some habitats in the world where spiders greatly outnumber other predators that exist in the area. While some spiders use their spun silk webs to their advantage to catch preys, there are some others that make use of stalking and ambush methods to get their meal. Spiders don't have teeth or jaws to use for chewing their food. Instead they have fang-looking pincers and gland that produces poison. The fangs are used to install themselves to their prey and subdue it, and venoms will flow through their hollow fangs and then injected to the prey's body in order to immobilize it. After that, spiders will make use of unique enzymatic saliva that will digest the muscles and internal viscera of the victim so that it can be sucked up by the spider eventually. The process of spider digestion is slow and would normally take longer especially for those smaller types.

The Infamous Spider Venoms

Speaking of spider venoms, the poison effects of spiders to humans have long been exaggerated ever since. The truth is most species of spiders have venoms that have negligible effects to humans. The effects could often just range from mild irritation to larger swellings and inflammation but nothing detrimentally serious. There are a very few species of spiders however that pose considerable threat to human health. These are the venoms coming from the black widow, brown recluse and hobo spiders. These types of spiders have stronger venoms to paralyze their prey.

Effective Spider Pest Control Methods

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Excluding hobbyists and scientists, most people do not like having spiders around them (Spiderman is another story), most especially in their own homes. Although spiders do the least damage compared to other house pests like ants, termites and mice, spiders remain as the most detested house pest because of the number of people having phobias on them. This inexplicable fear on spiders opened the gates of the market that caters to the needs of those who want to control or exterminate them.

However, if we base everything on statistics and facts, spiders can be considered "safe" around humans. Most spiders are non-venomous while those which are venomous are also non-aggressive. In fact, spiders only bite whenever they are threatened and only do so in order to protect themselves. Nevertheless, according to US statistics, spiders can cause the death of three Americans every five years. The numbers might be low, but the fact that they are capable of killing people is still enough to encourage homeowners to exterminate them and drive them out of their homes for good.

Those who studies spider reaction towards certain chemical agents synthesized to exterminate them found out that spiders are biologically unreceptive to poisons. This unique characteristic makes spiders difficult to kill. Simply spraying pesticide to a spider will not kill it, worse, in one way or another; the sprayed spider will even develop immunity towards the pesticide used against them.

Their bellies can be easily penetrated by poisons so in order to improve the effects of the pesticide; homeowners should find a way hit the spider's belly whenever he or she sprays. If the mists from the pesticide spray only touch the other parts of the spider's body, tendency is, the pesticide will not have any effects to the spider since these arachnids do not use their mouths to groom their bodies. Thus, there will be no way for the poison to penetrate the spider's body.

Spider Control Methods

The most effective approach to control spiders (if not eliminate them permanently) is to deprive them of their major food source. Since spiders are predators, they are most probably nesting in your house because your house is also a host to many delectable insects. If you can find a way to kill the insects on which they feed on, then the spiders will leave by themselves in search for another place where food is abundant.

Spiders usually build their webs near light-sources because insects are attracted to all light-emitting objects. Insects will mindlessly rush into the light source despite the presence of the spider webs. In the end, these insects will become a tasty food for the spiders. However, not all spiders catch their prey by baiting them; some spiders actually catch their prey. These spiders are called the hunting spiders and they have stubby and short legs. They use their legs to jump into their prey. Hunting spiders with longer legs run after their prey instead of jumping over them. While it is quite easy to control the web-making spiders, when it comes to hunting spiders, the task becomes more complex.

How to Control Hunting Spiders?

Since web-making spiders spend most of their time on their webs just waiting for food to come, it becomes easier for the homeowner to simply spray pesticide directly into the spider. However, hunting spiders are more active, thus it is also difficult to hit them right when sprayed with pesticides.

Thus, it is most advised for homeowners to simply use glue traps to catch the spiders. These traps look like cardboard sheets with one surface covered with a sticky material. Some glue trap manufacturers even add scent into the sticky material to make it more attractive to spiders. However, the best way to make the spider come into the glue trap is to stick a bug on the glue trap surface.

However, since glue traps can also get struck to other things apart from the spiders (pet's tongue, child's hand, furniture, carpet, etc.), some people fold the glue traps to resemble a cardboard box. That way, the sticky surface will not be able to touch other objects except for spiders that intentionally come into it hoping to eat the bug-bait stuck on the surface.

Glue traps are most effective when placed in dark areas around the house. Hunting spiders are fonder of such places. You can place a sticky glue trap inside the closet or under the bed. You can also place traps under furniture and in between cabinets and counter-tops. Sometimes, glue traps also serve as an investigation tool. If you have placed a lot of traps around your house and one or two of the traps caught the most spiders, then there is a very big possibility that the location of the trap is a regular entry or exit points for spiders. Thus, you can begin your inspection from that area and find cracks and crevices which might have served as their entry or exit points.

Glue traps are effective in spider control because spiders do not live in big groups unlike termites, ants and mice. These arachnids prefer to live in places where food competition is low. Thus, if you found a spider or two in your house, expect that there might be just two or three of them throughout your entire place.

Spiders commonly come into houses when the environment's temperature is warm. During warm seasons, spiders struggle for food and they go into houses in search for refuge. However, during fall when the population of insects rises, spider population also comes to its peak. Spiders will again look for an indoor hibernation site when the winter season comes. Many experts agree that the presence of spiders inside our homes should be tolerated as much as possible because they can greatly benefit the environment. Moreover, spiders do not damage human food and property, they feed on insects alone. They don't come in huge numbers too, making their presence hardly felt. Experts agree that control methods should only be used when tolerance is already impossible.

How to Take Care of The Spider Problem

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You can find spiders in almost everywhere; from the high mountain tops to the sea waters, they inhabit and sustain existence for a very long time. After all, spiders do no physically die upon natural cause. That simply means they can continue to live on as long as there are no exterior interference that could bring about their call of death. However, they are more commonly found in places dry secluded places which by far would include our very own household. Weaving their web dwellings on the ceilings of your home, or in the undertow of your staircases, spiders just can be practically everywhere in your house. They can even be found in your precious garden, ensnaring smaller insects for dinner. Good if they're just found in your garden and not in other places. The real problem begins if spiders begin dramatically infesting your household.

You could almost deduce the reasons why a spider infestation can be quite a nuisance in a household. But for a clearer picture of the hassles of having to deal with spiders, let us elaborate more on the examples. The primary reason why it's quite vexing to have spiders hanging around the house is that because literally they hang around. And if there's a lot of them, then you have a lot of these bugs hanging around. Once they start creeping and crawling for relocation, they could potentially find their way inside your lingerie. That would certainly scare the living daylights out of you, especially if you already have a phobia with bugs. Another hassle when there's a lot of spiders hanging around is the fact that it would make the cleaning chores a lot more hassling than it should be. Spiders' web can be very tedious to clean especially if they are situated in certain locations in the house that are difficult to reach, like the high corners of the ceiling or some dark secluded recesses of your cabinet or wardrobe (use the vacuum cleaner!!). Plus, they could really mess up your house's interior fashion statement. Cobwebs can really make your house look old, as if some abandoned establishment.

What's even more hassling and dangerous is the fact that there will be a possibility of the inclusion of some venomous spiders that can detrimentally harm human health. For example black widow spiders are very venomous spiders and naturally deadly to humans. They induce neurotoxins which disrupts the electrical signals of the human body, thus causing paralysis. Widows could also inhabit inside a house, especially in areas that are apparently undisturbed by humans for a very long time. The brown recluse spider can also be quite a considerable pest to deal with. These are just some of the most dangerous spiders that you may have to deal with when you will have to take care of spider infestations inside the house. Fortunately, there are new innovated ways on how to deal with spiders efficiently without having to worry about dangerous venomous spiders ever having to bite you because you disturbed their peaceful existence.

Therefore, there is an imperative need to deal with spiders once and for all especially if they inhabit your house, for the safety of yourself, and as well as the other members. Safeguard your dwelling from spiders by using the most effective spider infestation control methods available and you will eventually clean-up your house to make it look like as it was when new.

Spider Control Tips

1. The first thing that you would have to do when dealing with spiders is to find out the spider populations inside the house and where they are located. After that, you would have to assess the degree of spider infestation inside the house. It would truly help to know the degree of the infestation especially when distinguishing which method to use in order to deal with the spiders. You may do examinations by probing into the deep secluded areas of the house, especially dark areas like underneath the cabinet or beneath the stairs. You may also have to check the garden areas of your house for spider webs. They could dwell on leaf branches of plants and trees and that as well would have to be checked from time to time.

2. The second thing that you would have to do is to use a vacuum cleaner to suction all the cobwebs in the house. Vacuums of course don't only suck dust; they deal a pretty good job in cleaning spider webs as well. Just make it a point to use vacuum hose that are long enough to reach the ceiling corners of the house and as well as those that are small enough to fit in tight narrow dark places where spiders are most likely to dwell.

3. When dealing with spiders that inhabit the gardens, all you have to do is to use a water hose and direct them to the cobwebs and egg sacs in the certain areas of the garden. Make sure to use pressurized hose to shoot on the cobwebs. If it's not pressurized, then there is a possibility that you won't be able to get rid of the spider webs.

4. The most essential form of solution to spider infestations is to make sure that your house is strictly insulated from other bug pests that could inhabit the house. This way if you get rid of the bug pests in the house first, you will remove any potential food source for spiders and will discourage them from ever having to infest your house.

5. Make sure that your house is cleaned up every time. Don't ever wait for an entire week without having the house cleaned. If your house is clean every time, the lesser pests will inhabit inside the house. If there are no other bug pests inhabiting the house, then naturally since there is no long food source for spiders, they will no long want to dwell in your household as well. Make sure that every dark corners of the house are swept properly form time to time.

A Quick Guide on Spider Bites

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Many of the spiders that we see are actually afraid of us. Since these spiders scram away from humans, they don't normally bite unless they are severely threatened. Nevertheless, their bites are harmless and will not cause any serious skin or health problem.

However, there are certain types of spiders which are dangerous enough to jeopardize the health of its victim. Their bites can transfer venom to the victim's body resulting to blood poisoning. When bitten by these kinds of spiders, victims are advised to immediately seek proper medical attention.

The type of treatment needed to counter the effects of the venom to the human body is highly dependent on the specie of the offending spider. Thus, to make the process more efficient, victims should catch and present the offending spider to the medical personnel attending to him or to her. Moreover, while the victim is still waiting for the medical help to arrive, it is highly suggested that the following spider bite first aid procedures are performed:

1. Victims should immediately wash the bitten area using soap and water. An antibiotic cream can also be used for this purpose.

2. If the bitten area is somewhere on the limbs, the victim should elevate that area in order to keep the venom from quickly reaching the brain and the other important internal organs.

3. The victim should be very still. As much as possible, he or she should restrict any physical movement because motion can make the spread of the venom even faster.

4. In order to relieve the pain caused by the bite, the victim may apply ice over the bitten area. The ice can be wrapped in a cotton cloth to control its temperature. If the pain does not go away, the victim may be given acetaminophen.

5. Victims and those who attend to the victims should never cut open bite marks.

6. The victim may be given non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs if these are available. These drugs can prevent swelling and at the same time, inhibits the body from feeling pain.

7. As a reminder to first aiders, tourniquet should not be used on a spider bite victim as it can worsen the immediate effects of the spider bite.

8. Lastly, the victim should not drink, eat or smoke prior to treatment.

Specific Spider bite Treatments

As what has been earlier discussed, the type of spider bite treatment needed help a victim recover is dependent on the specie of the offending spider. Listed below are some of the most common poisonous spiders and the nature of their bites.

Black Widow

These spiders got their name from their very unique characteristic when it comes to mating. Female black widow spiders feed on their mate(!!) right after mating thus the name "widow". In South Africa, these spiders are known as the Shoe-button spiders. The Europeans call them Karakurt while New Zealanders name them Katipo. Because of the red mark that lie on its back, Australians call these spiders Redback.

A closer look at the black widow tells us that the spider has an hour-glass-like shape on its abdomen. This shape can come in three different colors: red, yellow or orange. overall, the black widow has long-legs and measures about 23 milimeters. However some black widows can reach up to 50 milimeters.

Despite being notorious to the male spiders, black widows are really non-aggressice, especially to humans. But, they are easily irritated and threatened, pushing them to bite in order to defend themselves. The black widow's bite would have the same sensation when you prick your finger with a pin. The bite marks of the black widow are quite visible. Under normal conditions, the bite mark would appear like two black dots inside a bigger redness circular skin area. As the venom of the black widow spreads, the victim will feel a burning sensation around the bitten area. The pain can last for up to 5 days if the victim will not submit himself for treatment.

The black widow's venom is considered to be neurotoxic because it can cause muscle cramps, and anxiety. Apart from that, the venom can also cause vomiting, nausea and head pains. Severe symptoms include: increase blood pressure, breathing problems and eye swelling.

Brown Recluse

This spider is more popular with its other names such as Violin and Fiddleback. These spiders can be found countries having tropical weather conditions. They are also native to the United States, Australia and South America.

The brown recluse spider is usually born with a light brown color although some may develop other colors over time. They can also grow by up to 10 milimiters in length and just like the black widows, these spiders also have their own bodily logos. The head of the Recluse Spider has a violin-shaped mark.

Just like the black widow, Recluse spiders also do not attack humans with the intention of biting them. They bite out of the instinct to protect themselves from any threats. The venom of the Recluse Spider is known as cytotoxic, meaning, it is that kind of a poison that can cause blistering around the affected area. The venom can also cause some localize swelling all throughout the body. In severe cases, a deep-setting skin ulcer might also develop due to the Recluse Spider's bite. The bite can also cause necrotic tissue appearance.

Some people would also experience a full body reaction after being bitten. Almost immediately, the victim will show symptoms like skin rashes, joint pain, nausea and fever. Within 72 hours, the extent of the damage can be unimaginable so it is very important for a Recluse Spider bite victim to seek medical help as soon as possible.

The same skin condition experienced by those having bedsores, herpes, skin asthma and diabetic ulcer can be experience by the victim if the bite is treated soon enough.

Hobo

This spider is very common in the western central Asia as well as in some parts of Europe. These spiders are also called as the Northwester Brown. They can grow up to 14 millimeters. They live in funnel-like webbings weaved between rocks, debris piles and stocked wood. Hobo Spiders are very aggressive spiders; in fact, they would attack and bite humans even with very little provocation. Their bites can cause a tingling sensation around the affected area. The spider's venom is also classified as necrotic.