As we all know no one in their right mind likes to see spiders crawling around in their house. In fact, many people, including myself, have an irrational fear of them. We all obviously know that the spiders are more scared of us than we are of them, but the thought of little insects crawling around your house like it’s their own is very unpleasant.
Some studies have said to leave them alone and not kill them because they need to eat insects in order to live. But for many of us killing them make one less thing in our mind that we have to worry about. Have you ever realized that in the wintertime when the spiders magically go away, we have a little peace of mind about them? But have you ever wondered where they went?
I mean, they don’t just mind their business as lovely as that would be, there is actually a real explanation for this. They go into a process called cold-hardening. This is when the spider freezes up and is dormant, this is a lot like hibernation but not exactly the same. Spiders are considered coldblooded since they don’t have the mechanism in them to regulate their body temperature.
Because of this, spiders are not attracted to the warmth, they are very different from humans in this way, they don’t shiver or get cold they just slow down and eventually, once it’s cold enough, just stop moving all together. Which is why, if they haven’t made it into your house before they cold harden, they aren’t coming in, or at least until spring that is. Don’t get I mixed up though, spiders don’t freeze over if this happened, they would die, most spiders can still live in –5 degrees Celsius and a little lower but after that they start dying.
Spiders actually have a compound in their body that is like anti-freeze and that kicks in when it starts getting too cold. For baby spiders the process is a little bit different, the mother spider will lay her eggs in the fall right before winter and when they hatch, they will stay in their egg sac all throughout winter until it’s over and spring arises. Some spiders do die during winter depending on how cold it gets, but the number of spiders unfortunately doesn’t go down considering how many baby spiders come out in the spring and are ready and eager for their new life to begin.
Overall, in the winter you are going to be safe from spiders, and not have to worry about getting the man in the house to come and kill them. You can have your peace of mind knowing the little insects are frozen outside somewhere. Another good thing about this is not many people know this and you can be the smart one and tell everyone you know who’s fear of spiders is as bad as yours to calm there nerves as well.
Author: Marcella Alvarez – Arizona State University