What Exactly Are Spiders?

Of all 40,000+ species of spiders, the Bagheera kiplingi is the only vegetarian species. It feeds on the nubs produced by acacia trees.

There are over 40,000 species of spiders and 109 recorded families of spiders. Spiders are arachnids with eight legs. There's a little story below about why they are called Arachnids. They are also Garfield's favorite insects for swatting.

Due to their portrayal in movies and horror stories, spiders have come to be associated with danger. But it is interesting to note that hardly a handful of all spiders actually pose a threat to humans. The rest are harmless, and only bite or attack in self-defense when provoked. So, what do spiders eat? No, it's not human flesh and blood! Let's find out.

This Is What Spiders Eat

Most spiders generally make a meal of the following creatures:

  • Flies
  • Wasps
  • Pinkies
  • Butterflies
  • Dragonflies
  • Scorpions
  • Beetles
  • Crickets
  • Grasshoppers
  • June bugs
  • Ants
  • Tadpoles
  • Stick bugs
  • Birds' eggs
  • Insects' eggs
  • Other spiders
  • Other local insects

Apart from the gourmet meals mentioned above, larger species of spiders also relish:

  • Lizards
  • Frogs
  • Toads

There is word going around that they also eat small mammals and birds, but there have been no sightings or recordings of such.

A wolf spider gripping a cricket in its fangs on a forest floor
A wolf spider makes short work of a cricket. Swift like a barracuda and almost the size of a tarantula, wolf spiders are active hunters, they don't wait for prey to walk into a web.

What Do House Spiders Eat?

Many people wonder what house spiders eat. House spiders have a slightly limited menu:

  • House insects
  • Silverfish insects
  • Stray insects
  • Other spiders

Many people also wonder what wolf spiders (the hairy species, swift like a barracuda and almost the size of a tarantula) eat. The only addition to the above list would be earwigs and cockroaches.

Captive spiders have also been fed:

  • Marmalade
  • Egg yolks
  • Bananas

Their feelings about the obviously vegetarian nature of those foods is not known.

Baby spiders eat plant nectar. Cute. The female black widow spider eats her mate after mating. A twisted idea of post-mating romance!

Take the Spider Diet Quiz!

5 quick questions about what spiders really eat, can you guess them all?

This Is How Spiders Eat

Spiders never chew their food, they drink it! Spiders have filters that keep out solid food, so they have to digest prey outside their own bodies. They do this by either:

  • Injecting prey with digestive enzymes, which liquefy the insides of the prey, then sucking up the liquefied contents.
  • Using the bases of their pedipalps as well as their chelicerae to mash their prey into a pulp with the help of digestive enzymes, then ingesting the pulp through a cavity.

Some spiders have to choke their prey to death with silk, because their venomous glands were lost during evolution. And if the spider changes its mind and doesn't feel like eating after killing the prey, it just makes a silk cocoon and stores it for later. Interesting, a silky coffin.

A jumping spider with large forward-facing eyes poised on a leaf near a small fly
Jumping spiders have excellent forward-facing vision, they stalk and pounce on prey rather than waiting in a web. They can learn to recognize insects as food with surprising accuracy.

Explore More Animals

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Random but Interesting Facts

  • Spiders weave silk webs that are elastic and waterproof.
  • By weight, a strand of spider's silk is heavier and stronger than an equivalent strand of steel!
  • A spider's silk is strong enough to stop a Boeing 747 in its path.
  • Two spider species, the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse, contain venom powerful enough to kill a human!
  • The fear of spiders is called arachnophobia.
  • One of the main reasons for spiders getting into your home is the new clothes you buy. Spiders lay eggs in clothes while they are being shipped, and these eggs hatch by the time the clothes arrive. Remember to wash new clothes as soon as you buy them!
  • Tarantulas are a delicacy in Cambodia.
  • Spiders can live for 2 years maximum. But in captivity, tarantulas have been known to live up to 25 years!

The Little Story That Was Promised…

There is an old story about how spiders got their scientific name "Arachnid" from Greek mythology. According to legend, there was a girl in Greece named Arachne who could weave beautifully. Her talent became famous far and wide and Athena, the Greek goddess, got jealous of her fame. She turned Arachne into a spider, and thus the name Arachnid came into existence.

Believe it or not, these eight-legged creatures are very important for our ecosystem. Without spiders, the planet would be teeming with insects. Pests would damage our crops and flies would be everywhere. So the next time you see a spider, think twice before squashing it!