Spider Myths

painting by lucille butler

So people, your some of your comments about my spider

in the glass concerned me! Swallow spiders while we sleep?

That just isn't acceptable to me! How am I ever going to

fall asleep again...much less get a drink in the dark! LOL!

So, I've done a little research! Here are 8 common

spider myths..that's right...they are not true!

My information was gathered from The Burke Mueseum

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You unknowingly swallow an average of four live spiders in your sleep each year. This very widespread urban legend has no basis in fact. For a sleeping person to swallow even one live spider would involve so many highly unlikely circumstances that for practical purposes we can rule out the possibility. No such case is on formal record anywhere in scientific or medical literature.

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Spiders drink moisture from the mouths or lips of sleeping humans. This legend does not seem to be recorded in print anywhere. A variant that one person claimed to have heard on TV is that "a spider will drink from your eye (while you sleep) 3 times in your life." It is probably just a variation on the "swallowing live spiders in your sleep" legend; like that one, it has no basis in fact.

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Spiders lay their eggs in human hairstyles. This one dating from the days of beehive hair-dos relates that a young woman died from the bites of black widow spiderlings that had hatched inside her bouffant. There are a number of variants, including a common one where the victim is a man with an Afro hair-do. Spiders do not find the human body or hair a favorable site for egglaying. Even if the hatchlings could bite, their vinom would be too weak to kill.

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The tip of a banana should not be eaten because there could be spider eggs inside. This seems to be one of the newest urban legends. I find no reference to it from before 2002. As the story goes, some unspecified spider species lays its eggs in banana flowers, the eggs end up inside the ripe banana fruit, and some nameless fate will overtake you if you eat the end with the eggs. Allegedly, monkeys peel bananas from the "wrong" end to avoid the spider eggs. banana flowers are narrow tubes. In consumer varieties, the fruit grows from the ovary deep inside without fertilization. There is simply no chance for spider eggs to get into a banana. Nor would a species that did this survive long, since spiderlings in an uneaten banana could never escape.

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Spiders can lay their eggs under human skin in wounds created by their bites. Fact: In a surprisingly widespread urban legend, a nameless woman is bitten by a spider (usually on her cheek) while on vacation. She later develops a swelling, from which, in due course, baby spiders emerge! Somehow or other, the venom must have transformed into eggs. Spiders, need I say, do not find the human body a suitable site for egglaying, and no actual case anything like this can be found anywhere in scientific or medical literature. (I specifically remember this story being told when I was young!)

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Spiders can hold their breath to avoid inhaling pesticides. I only heard this for the first time in 2007, but it is already as widespread as any of the older myths and legends. Exterminators use this story to explain why their pesticides don't kill spiders. The first thing wrong with this myth is that most pesticides that work by respiration, also work by contact. Many also work by ingestion. The second problem is that neither spiders nor insects actually breathe; therefore they cannot "hold their breath."

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"I'm very kind to spiders; when I find one in the house, I put it back outside instead of killing it." You can't put something "back" outside which was never outside in the first place. Although some house spider species can survive outdoors, most don't do well there, and some (which are native to other climates) will perish rather quickly when removed from the protective indoor habitat. You're not doing them a favor.

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Spiders come into houses in the fall to get out of the cold. This seemingly simple idea conceals many false assumptions. In reality, house spiders are usually not the same species as the yard or garden spiders outside the house.

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So there you have it! I'm especially glad that I don't have to worry about

a spider laying eggs in my face while I sleep! :)