WEBVTT - What is making my backyard sparkle at night?

0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.080
<v Speaker 1>This episode of brain Stuff is brought to you by

0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:05.519
<v Speaker 1>Linda dot Com. Linda dot Com offers thousands of engaging,

0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.760
<v Speaker 1>easy to follow video tutorials talket by industry experts to

0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.440
<v Speaker 1>help you learn software, creative and business skills. Membership starts

0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.000
<v Speaker 1>at twenty five a month and provides unlimited seven access.

0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.720
<v Speaker 1>Try Linda dot Com free for seven days by visiting

0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.960
<v Speaker 1>Linda dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff

0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:34.120
<v Speaker 1>from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi

0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.840
<v Speaker 1>Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is making my

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.920
<v Speaker 1>backyard sparkle at night? This past weekend. I was cleaning

0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.240
<v Speaker 1>my desk and I found my headlight lamp. This is

0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.640
<v Speaker 1>one of those little led flashlights with a strap so

0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.360
<v Speaker 1>that you can wear it on your forehead. You see

0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.560
<v Speaker 1>them in Home Depot and Lows and Amazon in places

0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.760
<v Speaker 1>like that. They cost about fifteen dollars. So you know

0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.480
<v Speaker 1>how once you find or buy something like that, you

0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.480
<v Speaker 1>want to try it out. I'm the same way. So

0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.520
<v Speaker 1>I strapped my headlight lamp on. I called the dog

0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:11.760
<v Speaker 1>and we went out in the backyard to look around.

0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.679
<v Speaker 1>I've been doing this big yard project, so there were

0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.920
<v Speaker 1>some piles of dirt in the backyard. I turned on

0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.200
<v Speaker 1>my light and I spun my head around and just

0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.319
<v Speaker 1>looked around the backyard with it, and the strangest thing happened.

0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:31.240
<v Speaker 1>The backyard sparkled. The pile of dirt that was over

0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.399
<v Speaker 1>to my left had all these reflections coming off of it,

0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.600
<v Speaker 1>like it was covered in little diamonds or something like that.

0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.319
<v Speaker 1>I stood and faced the pile and looked at it,

0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.959
<v Speaker 1>and it was still sparkling. There were dozens of spots

0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:50.160
<v Speaker 1>of brightly reflected light. What in the world could that be.

0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.880
<v Speaker 1>I assumed it was mica or quartz crystals or something

0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.400
<v Speaker 1>mixed in with the clay of the soil and the

0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.840
<v Speaker 1>pile of dirt. So I walked up closer to investigate.

0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:06.360
<v Speaker 1>And everyone I investigated was a wolf spider. What I

0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.840
<v Speaker 1>was seeing was the light being reflected off the eyes

0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:16.960
<v Speaker 1>of wolf spiders. Yes, wolf spiders, thousands of them, thousands

0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.320
<v Speaker 1>of thousands. You look around the backyard and they are

0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.639
<v Speaker 1>absolutely everywhere, And if you think about it, there could

0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.080
<v Speaker 1>actually be twice that many, because there could be an

0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.920
<v Speaker 1>equal number of spiders facing the opposite direction. That's a

0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.640
<v Speaker 1>lot of spiders. So I want to make sure that

0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm not hallucinating about this effect or the number of spiders.

0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.280
<v Speaker 1>I grab Lee and I take her outside and I

0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:40.959
<v Speaker 1>put the headlight on her head. What do you see?

0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.560
<v Speaker 1>I asked her. I've not told her a thing. You've

0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:49.280
<v Speaker 1>discovered diamonds, she asks, She is seeing the same reflections.

0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.040
<v Speaker 1>You don't see it with a normal flashlight. I guess

0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.440
<v Speaker 1>that the light has to be close to your eyes

0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.320
<v Speaker 1>to get the right angle of reflection so that you

0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.120
<v Speaker 1>can actually see the spiders. I tell her to go

0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.960
<v Speaker 1>and investigate one of the reflections. She is not particularly

0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.120
<v Speaker 1>happy with me when she finds out what's at the

0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.640
<v Speaker 1>other end. Then I show the kids one by one.

0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.040
<v Speaker 1>They all see it too, and we went on a

0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.720
<v Speaker 1>spider hunt together. They were far more excited than Lee was.

0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.120
<v Speaker 1>Of course, this isn't a new discovery. As soon as

0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.720
<v Speaker 1>you go to Google and plug the idea in, you

0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:26.400
<v Speaker 1>can find lots of pages with titles like headlighting for spiders.

0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.919
<v Speaker 1>Apparently people have been seeing wolf spiders this way ever

0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.120
<v Speaker 1>since we figured out how to strap lights onto our heads.

0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.000
<v Speaker 1>You might want to try it one night. I live

0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.520
<v Speaker 1>in North Carolina. If your location is anything like North Carolina,

0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.160
<v Speaker 1>there may be thousands of spiders out right now staring

0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.040
<v Speaker 1>at you. For more on this and thousands of other

0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.680
<v Speaker 1>topics because that house stuff works dot com and don't

0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:52.520
<v Speaker 1>forget to check out the brain Stuff blog on the

0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.960
<v Speaker 1>house stuff works dot com home page. You can also

0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.120
<v Speaker 1>follow brain Stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain Stuff

0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:05.040
<v Speaker 1>hs W. Jack Threads has quickly become the online shopping

0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.800
<v Speaker 1>destination for guys. Here's why everything on the side is

0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.520
<v Speaker 1>up to eight percent off. They serve up killer contemporary

0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.240
<v Speaker 1>and street apparel, accessories and gadgets from brands like Converse, Penguin,

0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.640
<v Speaker 1>and Busted t s. Shopping is simple and all styles

0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.400
<v Speaker 1>are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's more,

0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.440
<v Speaker 1>as a listener of brain Stuff, you can skip the

0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.440
<v Speaker 1>membership waitlist and get instant access at sign up dot

0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.840
<v Speaker 1>jack Threads dot com slash brain Stuff