Halloween is coming up and one of the traditional symbols is a nice, hairy, eight-legged spider. This year spiders are apparently particularly big because the summer was so warm, which means spiders had lots of lovely food to eat and lots of time to grow, and that can make them even scarier to those of us who don’t like them. But spiders really are our friends, so next time you see one as you’re running a bath for your charges, don’t scream – share some of these fun facts.
Spiders don’t have blood, or any kind of blood vessels. What they use as blood is actually a kind of light blue liquid that floats around their body.
They breathe through their tummies.
Spider silk is probably the strongest material in the world.
Antarctica is the only continent where you can’t find any spiders.
There is one species of spider that is vegetarian, all the others are predators. British spiders mostly eat insects, which makes them really useful.
More women than men are afraid of spiders.
Tarantulas shed their skins, like snakes.
Not all spiders make webs, and spider webs can come in lots of different shapes and sizes.