What’s that old saying? “A spider is more scared of you than you are of it” or something like that. Is that really the case? Are spiders afraid of humans? Hold on to your hat, because we’re about to blow that saying right out of the water!
Spiders do not possess the capability for emotions such as fear. That’s not to say they won’t avoid us when they can or run away from us when we disturb or walk near them, that’s basic survival instinct. Hunting, defence, and mating behaviours are the same. They may bite when threatened, but they can’t plan out how they’ll attack us in our sleep for example.
Well there you go, now you know. To prove what we’re saying isn’t made up, let’s delve into that question a bit deeper.
Spider Brains
We have a whole article on spider brains specifically, here.
In short, spiders have extremely small brains that extends down into their legs and whilst intelligent, they are incapable of feeling any emotion like anger, sadness, happiness, or fear.
The spider’s central nervous system is made up of two relatively simple ganglia, or nerve cell clusters, connected to nerves leading to the spider’s various muscles and sensory systems.
The simple instructions encoded in these nerve cells give spiders all the information they need to undertake complex tasks, such as building webs and attacking prey
Eyesight
Despite having numerous eyes, the majority of spiders have terrible eyesight. Really terrible.
Most are only able to detect little more than light-dark intensity changes.
This is what causes them to flee or rear up when you get too close.
All they know is something huge and dark is looming at them, so they automatically switch into flight or fight mode.
Of course, there are exceptions – jumping spiders, flower spiders and wolf spiders all have relatively good vision.
However, even these spiders eyesight are limited to being good for capturing prey and for recognising potential mates.
Hunting
Spiders use their brains to hunt for prey.
Most spiders make webs and wait for vibrations on the web to let them know when dinner has arrived.
However, the wolf spider for example, actively hunts down its prey.
And bolas spiders’ choice of meal is the male moth. They produce a large ball of sticky silk, which they suspend from a single line.
The ball is infused with a chemical that mimics one emitted by female moths. Male moths are naturally drawn to it.
Certain jumping spiders have a neat little trick whereby they pluck at the strings of their meal’s web and when the unsuspecting spider comes to see what it’s caught, it becomes the hunted, not the hunter.
And the trapdoor spider hides under it’s “lid” with a silken web on the ground.
As soon as it feels the vibrations, it pops out from its trapdoor to capture whatever unfortunate prey item has wandered across.
Defence
A further thing spiders are good at is defence. Whilst humans can show aggression as an emotion, spiders show aggression purely as a survival instinct.
If they feel threatened in any way, they have two choices. They either flee or become aggressive.
If they feel backed into a corner (the majority of spiders would rather flee than fight), they will be prepared to fight.
Most spiders are very docile and would rather go about their business of hunting prey and living their best life unless confronted by a predator.
Have you ever seen a spider and as you’ve gotten closer, it’s run away?
That’s because spiders are not confrontational in the main, they certainly don’t sit there planning ways to attack a person.
“I Swear That Spider Tried to Attack Me!”
We’ve heard this a few times and it is simply not true.
As already mentioned, most spiders have extremely poor eyesight and so if a spider appears to be running TOWARD you, it has just noticed your shadow and thinks it’s a nice dark place to hang out.
The camel spider (which isn’t actually a spider at all, like spiders they are members of the class Arachnida, but they are actually solpugids. We have an article coming soon on those, so keep your eyes peeled!), is notorious for this.
You will have heard myths of them attacking soldiers in the desert, not true. Again, they are just seeking shelter in your shadow.
We hope we’ve proven to you that whilst spiders are not capable of being actively scared of humans, they do see us as predators so will go out of their way to avoid us if possible.
Which is unsurprising really, given the amount of people that would rather set their house on fire than make allowances for these cute little critters!