Forget floods, droughts, sea-level rise and even the melting polar ice caps. Here’s a really compelling reason to worry about global warming. Spiders.
Research has already suggested that there will be more of them – and they will grow bigger – as temperatures rise. Now a new study, published in the journal Experimental Biology, has concluded that they are likely to be able to run faster and therefore, be harder to catch.
It all comes down to how the arachnids move. Instead of using muscles, they rely on fluid to move their limbs. And as it heats up, the fluid’s ebb and flow gets faster. So the researchers found that while they moved sluggishly at a cool 59F (15C), they sprinted around at three times the speed when the thermometer rose to a stifling 104F (40C).
They sped up mainly by taking more steps, which also made them clumsier because they were unable to control their limbs so well. So there you have it: more bigger, speedier spiders, which are more liable to stumble into your bath.
Maybe the Torygraph should get rid of journalists with arachnophobia and hire some decent reporters.
Spiders are always fun. I still enjoy taking a blade of grass and sparring with jumping spiders, and as kids we were always dropping things on the webs in the privet hedges to see the wolf spiders charge out of their tunnels and attack.
The Eight Legged Freaks trailer is great and I’m going to check it out on Netflix, but the Telegraph stretches things a bit in its search for “hooks” to get readers’ attention.
Yeah, there will perhaps be “more and bigger” spiders due to AGW, and their ranges will change (and some will die off), but there are other cold-blooded critters that should scare us more as warmth makes them “faster”. Picture retirees in FL riding their bikes down the street and being run down by heat-enhanced alligators. How about a movie about speedy killer turtles?
We’ll need bigger, faster spiders to combat the hordes of tropical insects that will thrive in a warmer world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBxzoqTSILc
Yeah, don’t kill the Huntsman spider because it can be ‘beneficial” and kill unwanted critters?. And if it’s a female and manages to have its 200 babies in your house, don’t kill them either. Just move out. LOL
And “puppy-sized” Goliath spiders can probably be kept friendly if you give them “treats”—-go to your local bait and/or pet store and stock up on crickets, night-crawlers, baby mice, frogs, etc. (Do NOT hold the “treat” in your hand to offer it up, and do not attempt to pet the spider).
I have a dear friend who’s DEATHLY afraid of all things arachnid and most things creeepy-crawly – she once nearly abandoned her children when they found a big spider in the back seat of the car.
So where in the world did she choose to live, out of four countries where she has extended family or a network of friends?
AUSTRALIA.
Not the best choice she’s ever made.
Several years ago, I’d get a cricket setting up shop in my downstairs bathroom when the nights would start to cool in the Fall. The last few years, I’m hosting crickets year round: I’ll put one outside, and a day later a couple more will move in, &c..
The middle of England now deals with crickets from Southern England who have moved northward, I’ve read.
“They sped up mainly by taking more steps, which also made them clumsier because they were unable to control their limbs so well.”
Ya but then evolution takes over and the ones that are more successful at controlling their movements will also be the best survivors and you know (well unless you are an idiot, i.e. creationist) what that leads to. Yup big hairy arachnids that can outrun you!
don’t have to outrun THEM, only have to outrun YOU. right?
LOL – [sticks leg out – whoops you tripped] 🙂
Yep, I’ve always said when swimming in our shark infested waters here in Australia you don’t have to be the fastest swimmer, just not the slowest.
Actually, while we’re on the topic of spider evolution, I am reminded of this…..yes its old but its still excellent.
LOL. Since all life shares a common genetic heritage and bochemistry, “drugs” will mess up any living thing’s functioning. I had a college friend who once gave his tiny puppy a bowl of beer at a small gathering. The puppy got “falling down drunk” and resorted to getting around by leaning against the wall or the furniture as it walked (until it passed out). Most of the guys laughed like hell at its antics, and the gals got angry at them. Those of us that agreed with the gals were then seen as “sensitive, and scored some points.
That’s BIOchemistry—-I haven’t had my morning dose of caffeine yet.