Spiders are busy spinning webs in the grass, in the bushes, wherever there is prey to be caught… made of silken strands only a few millionths of an inch thick but stronger than steel. Structures that are pure beauty when jeweled with morning dewdrops. ~Hal Borland, Seasons, 1973
Before I began spending so much time with so many incredibly talented people in the Smoky Mountains National Park, my perspective on creepy crawlies was 180° from where it currently resides. Actually, a plethora of my perspectives have changed, but this post will focus on spiders. To protect the squeamish, the photo gallery consists of webs, in large part, not their creators. You’re welcome. Here we go.
Webs: one of spiders' superpowers
As you can see from the photos below, or perhaps from examples you have seen up close and personal, spiders are textile art geniuses. Their designs are intricate, functional, and created without any extraneous materials. If you haven’t considered the beauty in them before, take a walk in the early morning before the dew dissipates. Grassy fields seem to be draped with diamonds that disappear as the sun rises. But there’s more to webs than meets the eye.
Consider the tensile strength of the web. According to Aptive, even though the strands are only 1000th of the size of a human hair, they are flexible, durable and incredibly strong–stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. Equally important, webs are being used in medical research to develop a way for spider silk to “create a biodegradable mesh that can accelerate tissue growth.” Pretty impressive, that. Something that most people avoid running into might one day accelerate healing.
But there’s even more, and perhaps the more includes something you didn’t know already. I didn’t, for sure.
More than spinners
Even though you may not be able to shed your aversion to looking at spiders, you have to give them their due in the skills area. Here are just two of the very intriguing facts in the Aptive article:
- Mimicry – spiders can make themselves appear to be ants while they’re hunting for ants. They hold two legs up to look like antennae and walk in a meandering fashion. And spiders aren’t the only wild creatures that use mimicry. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
- Jumping – Javier Sotomayor (men’s best world-class high jumper according to Rookie Road) looks like a trifler compared to spiders. They can jump 100 times the length of their bodies. Using my height–and if I had a spider’s ability–I could jump 183 yards. That’s more than 182 yards over the length I can actually manage.
If you aren’t impressed with spiders yet, you have a bar so high I couldn’t see it with the Hubble telescope. How’s the air up there? But back to spiders.
The beasties are besties
Finally think about their parlor tricks; spiders are quite useful. Practically speaking, they remove unwanted guests from your home. No, not your in-laws, silly. I’m talking about pests. According to Pest Management Systems, spiders are arachnid assassins, the only kind of assassin you want in your house. They dine on flies, roaches, and mosquitoes, to name a few. You might not want to stomp on residents that eat, on average, 2,000 insects that would infest your home, your closet, maybe your skin. Gross.
As I mentioned at the beginning, my perspective has changed. Years ago Susan Slade opened my eyes to art history, and by extension, the world around me. Recent experiences with incredibly knowledgeable individuals have begun to chisel away at my aversion to some facets of the natural world that I had previously avoided at all costs. I can’t say I expect to become fond of reptiles, insects (flying or crawling), or arachnids, even if they are phenomenal jumpers and great artists.
What I can commit to is learning enough to fully appreciate some things that I do not care to embrace, and to understand which creatures benefit my environment too much to destroy them.
You?
I enjoyed this one!
Photos are great!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great blog. We never kill spiders in our house , just let them be. If they are big enough to hear trying to get out of my bathtub then I relocate them
Outside. I learned. A few years ago that you are always within a few yards of a spider. Also if it were not for spiders we would all die. They eat the plethora of plant eating insects which would otherwise
Destroy they foliage.
You can “hear” them moving around? No, Walt. Just no.