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  • Spiders are horrible, eight-legged, bazillion-eyed creatures of human nightmares.

  • If you like spiders, you've forgotten that they tried to eat Frodo AND Harry Potter.

  • And yet, scientists insist upon telling us that spiders are just misunderstood.

  • Here's why you shouldn't kill spiders in your house.

  • Spiders: Pest control for free.

  • According to Science Daily, spiders consume between 400 million and 800 million tons of insects every single year.

  • They eat flies, earwigs, cockroaches, and those obnoxious moths that leave holes in your sweaters.

  • But scientists say you shouldn't kill that terrifying eight-legged thing climbing all over your walls as you try to eat breakfast.

  • "Why on Earth not?" you're probably wondering.

  • Well, it's because spiders do a great job at controlling pests.

  • Thanks so much, you helpful, totally horrific thing!

  • They don't want to hurt you.

  • Prepare to have your world shattered: Spiders aren't actually all that aggressive with humans.

  • In fact, they tend to avoid people, so it's unlikely you'll ever meet the majority of spiders that lurk inside your home.

  • That was intended to be a comforting thought.

  • We swear.

  • "Do it!"

  • Sure, the Sydney Funnel Web spider has been known to attack peopleand its fangs are sharp enough to cut through leather.

  • But if you don't live in Australia, you almost definitely have nothing to worry about.

  • We said almost.

  • Fearing spiders is silly.

  • In a 2014 Wired article entitled "I promise: spiders are not trying to kill you," entomologist Gwen Pearson suggests our fear of spiders is irrational.

  • Your mind tends to exaggerate the size, speed, and intentions of things you're afraid of.

  • So when you see a tiny spider, your brain might process it as a monstrous, twenty-ton killing machine.

  • In fact, your fear of spiders is a learned behavior.

  • You don't fear spiders because we're programmed to fear spiders.

  • You're afraid of spiders because your parents were terrified of them.

  • Basically, science is telling you to get over yourself because your fear of spiders is stupid.

  • Nice attitude, science.

  • Spiders are clean.

  • No, really.

  • Spider webs might get messy, but arachnologists want you to know that spiders themselves are actually quite clean.

  • In fact, they even groom themselves, since any debris on their legs could cause them to get caught in their own webs.

  • Which would be embarrassing.

  • But spider bites can get infected, right?

  • Well, according to Science Daily, bacterial infections from spider bites are quite uncommon.

  • Blame your doctor if your arm needs to be amputated because of that, quote, "spider bite."

  • A recent study found that, out of 182 patients claiming to have spider bites, only about 4 percent actually did.

  • Most of the other patients had skin infections.

  • "Be afraid. Be very afraid. Everything about you is changing."

  • Don't just take them outside.

  • Before you take that spider outside, totally secure in the knowledge that you're doing Mother Nature a solid... consider this.

  • There are some species of spider that actually evolved to live inside, and they won't survive in the great outdoors.

  • Of course, many species positively thrive outside.

  • Arania Exumai!”

  • Go!”

  • According to Mother Nature News, about 95 percent of the spiders you find in your house didn't wind up there by accident.

  • They were born and raised in your home, and they've never been outside at all.

  • In other words, that spider you just scooped up in newspaper and gently released on your porch doesn't have much of a chance at survival.

  • Now who's the monster?

  • "Can you check under my bed?"

  • "You were just having a bad dream."

  • You're fighting a losing battle.

  • Now we come to the final reason you shouldn't eradicate the spiders in your house: like a bug caught in a spider's web, you're fighting a losing battle.

  • According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the goal is, quote, "pest control, not pest eradication."

  • Whether you stomp them, spray them, or wash them down the sinkthey'll just keep coming back.

  • But perhaps you'll take comfort in this little fact: You're not alone.

  • A 2016 survey of 50 homes in North Carolina found that every single one of them contained spiders.

  • The average home reportedly hosted around 100 different species of arthropod, the group that includes both spiders and insects.

  • Surely all those spiders hiding in every dark corner of your home must be doing something positive, right?

  • For now, let's listen to the entomologistsuntil they start telling us we should start letting cockroaches live in our homes, too.

  • "I hope you die!"

Spiders are horrible, eight-legged, bazillion-eyed creatures of human nightmares.

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