35 Weird and Interesting Facts about Spiders

Daddy long legs prey upon venomous spiders like the black widow.

27. There isn’t a single reported case of a person dying from a Tarantula bite.

28. Black widow's bites produce muscle aches, nausea, and a paralysis of the diaphragm that can make breathing difficult; however, contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage, let alone death.

29. There is an Annual Tarantula Exhibition, where participants are judged much like dogs in a dog show. Participants are judged on shiny coats, correct proportions, an active demeanor and proper stance. In 2014, the event was attended by more than 30,000 tarantulas and their keepers.

30. The Carolina wolf spider is the Official state spider of South Carolina, and South Carolina is the only U.S. State that recognizes a state spider.

The male red widow spiders force feed themselves to the female of their species. If she spits him out, he will keep shoving himself into her mandibles.

32. The “spitting spider” is the only spider that can shoot a web at its prey at speeds too fast for the human eye to see and the web actually has evolved to contract and tighten around its prey; rendering it immobile.

33. The male nursery web spider will give wrapped gifts to the female, as a mating ritual. If the gift is rejected, the male will play dead and later repeat the process.

34. Of the 34,000 species of spiders, only 27 species are known to have caused human fatalities.

35. Brown recluse spiders can go an average of 6 months without food, and there is one observed case of a spider surviving over 5 seasons without food.