Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here. Some people are afraid
Speaker 1: of spiders, maybe even you. It's not uncommon, and some
Speaker 1: research suggests so. The fear of these creatures may be
Speaker 1: genetically hardwired into our brains. But whether that anxiety is
Speaker 1: learned or innate. When you hop in the shower and
Speaker 1: are immediately confronted with the spindle spread of eight hairy legs,
Speaker 1: it's hard not to give a hop right back out.
Speaker 1: And sometimes when you bring somebody into the bathroom to
Speaker 1: help remove said spider, they'll say, oh, it's just a
Speaker 1: wolf spider, nothing to freak out about. Or else they'll say, oh, no,
Speaker 1: it's a wolf spider. Let's both commence the freaking out.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's entirely possible your friend is right about
Speaker 1: it being a wolf spider, because in many parts of
Speaker 1: the world, in the center of the ven diagram of
Speaker 1: spiders that are large and occasionally in your shower you'll
Speaker 1: find this majestic creature. Of course, saying something is a
Speaker 1: wolf spider isn't all that specific. There are a hundred
Speaker 1: genera or families and over twenty three d species of
Speaker 1: wolf spiders in the world over two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: eight of which occupied different habitats and regions of the
Speaker 1: United States. They're usually well camouflaged, dark colored, with a
Speaker 1: usually striped or banded pattern of black, brown, gray, or
Speaker 1: tan markings on their backs and legs. Depending on the species,
Speaker 1: they can range in size from what would call reasonable
Speaker 1: something like a quarter of an inch that's six and
Speaker 1: a half millimeters long, to what some would call unreasonable
Speaker 1: that is over an inch or three centimeters. The females
Speaker 1: are always larger than the males and carry their egg
Speaker 1: sacs around with them to protect the unborn babies from
Speaker 1: parasites and predators. Once the spiderlings emerge, they ride around
Speaker 1: on their mom's back until they're large enough to make
Speaker 1: it on their own. While these robust spiders can be
Speaker 1: alarming house guests, none of the thousands of species are
Speaker 1: dangerous to humans. We spoke with Nancy Heinkel, a professor
Speaker 1: in the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia.
Speaker 1: She said wolf spiders are harmless and indeed provide valuable
Speaker 1: pest control around our homes and yards because they eat
Speaker 1: pest insects. As might be guessed from their name. Wolf
Speaker 1: spiders are hunters and stalk their prey. They have large eyes,
Speaker 1: giving them exceptional vision and allowing them to spy prey
Speaker 1: and successfully pursue it. These sporty spiders are such strong
Speaker 1: hunters that they don't even need to build webs in
Speaker 1: order to snag a meal. They spend their nights stalking
Speaker 1: around after their quarry and occasionally find their way into
Speaker 1: your house. Hankle said, because spiders feed on insects, they
Speaker 1: seek out places where insects congregate. Think about the numbers
Speaker 1: of insects that show up at your porch light. Spider's
Speaker 1: view this as a buffet. To reduce the chance of
Speaker 1: spiders slipping under your door, turn off the porchlight to
Speaker 1: avoid luring insects to your door. Outside, wolf spiders build
Speaker 1: holes or tunnels in the ground, or live in protected
Speaker 1: areas between box in cracks and old stumps, wherever it
Speaker 1: looks safe and dry. According to Hankel, if you find
Speaker 1: a large spider inside your house, there's almost certainly some
Speaker 1: opening large enough for a spider to squeeze in through
Speaker 1: a space under a door, a pipe chase, hole in
Speaker 1: the wall where a cable line enters the floor from
Speaker 1: a crawl space. Hankel said, if a spider is big
Speaker 1: enough to enter, it's likely a lot of heated or
Speaker 1: air conditioned air is escaping through the same hole. If
Speaker 1: you're finding a lot of spiders in your home, it's
Speaker 1: probably worth using your detective skills to locate any cracks
Speaker 1: or gaps, seal them up, and save energy while excluding spiders.
Speaker 1: But if you do find a wolf spider in your house,
Speaker 1: the best idea is to take a deep breath and
Speaker 1: remember this arachnets on your team riding your house of
Speaker 1: unwanted insects. There's virtually no chance the spider will come
Speaker 1: at you. They will bite if handled or trapped next
Speaker 1: to your skin, but it's unlikely you'd have much for
Speaker 1: a reaction to the bite. And remember they will always
Speaker 1: choose to retreat from a human where thousands of times
Speaker 1: larger than them and have opposable thumbs that help us
Speaker 1: wheel flip flops and rolled up newspapers. Ankle said, because
Speaker 1: they are harmless to humans, spiders found in the home
Speaker 1: should be relocated outdoors. To do this, place a jar
Speaker 1: over the spider, slide a stiff piece of paper under
Speaker 1: the jar, and carefully carry it outside for release. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: mostly harmless topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
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