“Will you walk into my parlour?” said a spider to a fly; “It’s the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.” Mary Howitt
Whenever you see a spider weaving its web, you automatically reach for the broom to remove it. People usually do not kill spiders but they destroy their cobwebs. It is true that too many cobwebs would indicate that your room or house is untidy.
Sometimes others might think that you are living in an abandoned house. The fact is that you will see more spiders than any other creatures in your house. However, in proverbial and traditional allusions, references have been made to the cunning, skill and industry of the ubiquitous spider and its power of secreting or emitting poison.
Wherever you go, you will see spiders and cobwebs. Sometimes you are never more than ten feet away from them. They are hiding away in the corner of your room or on the ceiling. You will be surprised to learn that there are more than 35,000 different species of spiders.
Female spiders have a larger appetite than male spiders. Sometimes the female spider eats the male spider before, during or after copulation. The sexual cannibalism has inspired the name for widow spiders and the black widows. Spiders are blue-blooded creatures.
You may have seen spiders in your dreams. They symbolise anxiety, vulnerability and fear the dreamer experiences in his waking life. Such dreams can also relate to the dreamer’s feelings of being trapped. Sigmund Freud believed that spiders symbolise a mother figure and the complexity of the mother-child relationship. Carl Jung said the spider was a shadow shelf, a reflection of repressed elements and aspects of someone’s personality.
Lesson on perseverance
In a traditional story of the Scottish nationalist leader Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) –Robert I of Scotland – he was encouraged by watching a spider in a cave attempting to spin a thread long enough to reach another piece of rock. He took it as a lesson on perseverance.
A spider is also said to have helped Prophet Muhammad. He and his friend Abu-Bakr were in flight from the men of Mecca and took shelter in a cave to protect them. According to the story, pigeons built their nests and a spider spun its web across the mouth of the cave, so that the pursuers assumed that it had been abandoned.
Children are familiar with Spiderman, an American comic-strip hero who first appeared in 1952. Spiderman is the alter ego of a shy bookish teenager called Peter Parker who developed arachnid powers after being bitten by a radio-active spider.
Apart from such stories, we hear something different from China. In the rice and cotton fields of China during the autumn of 1988, people witnessed a strange sight. They saw farmers building little tepees out of straw. Even though the conical huts looked bizarre, they had a serious purpose. The little tepees were to house hibernating spiders. They scuttled into the fields in hordes ready to attack the insects attempting to suck the life out of the young rice and cotton plants. By protecting the spiders, Chinese farmers increased their crop yields. There was also no necessity to use insecticides.
Today, agricultural experts in developed countries have begun to harness spider power to protect their crops from invading armies of insects. In fact, spiders are not insects, but are known as arachnids. Farmers know that spiders are arch enemies of insects. Spiders kill more insects than insecticides. According to experts, spiders devour a large number of bugs in a single day. In a way, they support the human existence.
Spiders are used for pest control and they are being studied to produce drugs for brain disorders. Spiders are likely to be used for making surgical implants and bulletproof vests. Willard H. Whitcomb, Professor of Entomology at the University of Florida was known as the ‘Florida Spiderman’ by his colleagues.
Most spiders are harmless to humans. Some of them live in warm climates such as Sri Lanka and India. They destroy cockroaches and other insects. The banana spider in Central America has become a welcome guest because it eats all types of insects including lizards that crawl on the walls.
On the other hand, wolf spiders live in fields and protect the crop from insects. Spiders in apple orchards in California destroy little moths. Unlike ladybugs, wasps and other natural enemies that fly away, spiders sit and starve for weeks waiting for food to come their way. Many farmers are unaware that spiders destroy harmful insects.
We should not forget, however, that some spiders are dangerous. The black widow and the brown recluse are poisonous. Sometimes the spider bites are greatly exaggerated by rumour mongers and story tellers. Such stories should not make us blind to ingenious hunting methods of spiders. Spitting spiders are clever at catching insects by shooting out globs of spit. Under such an attack, the insects will find it difficult to move and the spider finishes the job in no time. Scientists have identified spider venom to interfere with the nervous system of insects. When the insect becomes powerless to move away, the spider eats it alive.
Spider venom
According to recent research, scientists have discovered that spider venom may benefit humans. They have successfully tested spider chemicals in drugs to combat epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists are also interested in web-weaving spiders that produce silk strands. They are generally weak, but some types have been proved to be strong. You may have seen such web-weaving spiders. Although we consider them as a nuisance, they are deadly hunters of harmful insects.
Some companies such as Protein Polymer Technologies Inc. in San Diego are working with spider silk. They believe that they will be able to produce heart valves using it. Meanwhile, certain types of spiders found in the jungles of New Guinea are edible. They weave enormous circular webs bigger than bicycle wheels. Although some spiders are edible, people have not acquired a taste for their flesh. Instead of destroying spiders, we can use them to protect our crops. It will save our soil and water. What is more, we will be able to eat fresh vegetables and fruit without pesticide residue.
While writing on spiders, I was touched by Emily Dickinson’s little poem on spiders:
A spider sewed at night
Without a light
Upon an arc of white.
If ruff it was of dame
Or shroud of gnome,
Himself himself in form,
O immortality
His strategy,
Was physiognomy.
