Are tarantulas nicer than spiders?

[Marlana]

Ummm no. Jumping spiders for instance are extremely intelligent and curious. They are super fun to handle and don’t seem to mind in the least. They seriously seem to interact on a level I’ve not seen out of any other spider. Anyway back to general true spiders, many don’t ‘bite’ often. You have to damn near squish them to death to get them to bite. Brown recluse? Black window? RARELY bites (I don’t care what your mothers brothers son said). I don’t use a catch cup to move regular spiders in my house…I use my hand. Never been bitten. It’s just fear based myth honestly. Most people think every random bump is a spider bite…no. If you didn’t see the spider bite you, I highly doubt it’s a spider bite.

If anything tarantulas are more defensive than a lot of true spiders because of their size. They know they can stand their ground more than some spiders because they are huge and have huge fangs/venom/urticating hairs. I implore you to interact with small spiders more, you’ll see they are just scared and they know they can’t take you on (not saying you should hold them but just watch them).

Edited to add: defensiveness can vary from species to species and specimen to specimen. Every spider can bite. I’m just saying most wouldn’t bite nearly as easy as most people believe.

 

[Moyzie]

QUESTION:
ARE SPIDERS NICER THAN TARANTULAS

ANSWER:
Ignoring that Tarantula are spiders... my honest answer is no. I have two Pholcus phalangioides in my bathroom - and when I was in hospital, nether came to visit me - nor send me a get well card !!

Where as the T's showed just how much nicer they are by not only sending me a "get well basket" containing champagne truffles and fresh fruit, they also gave the flat a hoover and cooked me a nice welcome home dinner. Additionally they stocked the fridge to get me through the next few days. So as far as Im concerned, Tarantula ARE nicer.

 

[KenD]

You probably know this, but I'm sure there are some that don't. One of the things I like to do with people that I know won't freak out, is show them just how many spiders there are outside. I don't think most realize. This works best in an area that isn't super dry and has nice grass. If you go out at night with a flashlight and shine it around the yard, you'll see little reflections everywhere. It's easy to not notice them, but once you do, they are all over. Most people believe it's just a reflection off drops of dew or other moisture. If you go and look at each one up close, however....wolf spider or grass spider. Then you really start to get a scope of their numbers.

Global average is apparently something in the vicinity of 130 spiders per square meter...

 

[Moyzie]

Global average is apparently something in the vicinity of 130 spiders per square meter...

Globally....Does the global average take into account the 71% of water covering the earth ?

 

[KenD]

Globally....Does the global average take into account the 71% of water covering the earth ?

I've no idea. Info painstakingly gathered by quickly googling "spider density in the world" (can't remember how I initially came across that, but it's safe to say that my Google search history is ..unusual.... )

 

[arthurliuyz]

Globally....Does the global average take into account the 71% of water covering the earth ?

Didn't read the article but I believe this is the source @KenD read from.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/28/spiders-could-theoretically-eat-every-human-on-earth-in-one-year/

 

[Vulash]

Just go out tonight with a flashlight and mark off a square meter and go to town. Is it accurate? Nope. Is it cool? Yup

It's on Landmass. Here is the original from that article:
An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community | SpringerLink

It doesn't really go into details, but the number above is quoting a paper from 1973. I can only access an unhelpful first part of the abstract on that paper.

 

[Cmoore0475]

Global average is apparently something in the vicinity of 130 spiders per square meter...

In no way am I calling young a liar, I just don’t see how that could possibly be. There would have to be countless places of nightmare fuel around the globe! There should be a website to manage those places like you can see sexual predators in your neighborhood! Jesus!

 

[KenD]

In no way am I calling young a liar, I just don’t see how that could possibly be. There would have to be countless places of nightmare fuel around the globe! There should be a website to manage those places like you can see sexual predators in your neighborhood! Jesus!

Oh, if it's a lie it's Washington Post's, not mine. I didn't much more than briefly glance at the article, and haven't looked at the scientific article it's based on at all - not enough to have much of an opinion even