The little creature pokes its head out from behind the curtain and slowly begins to traverse downward. Suddenly the human sitting in the chair nearby sees it. The human screams and quickly retreats, so does the spider. If it was possible for such creatures to have egos, surely spider egos would have to be very large. After all, not many life forms which weigh only an ounce, could, by the
very act of showing itself, cause a creature about a thousand times larger than itself to flee in terror!

There are over 30,000 different kinds of spiders on the planet. Most are small creatures who spend their lives ridding us of pesky insects. If you ask most people they will tell you that a spider is an insect, but that is not so. Rather, spiders belong to a group of animals called arachnids. They have four pairs of segmented legs, and can grow a new leg if they lose one. Most spiders have eight eyes, and they do not have antennae or wings. A spider's body is divided into two sections, the abdomen and the cephalothorax. The legs, eyes, and mouthparts are all in the cephalothorax. Most spiders have poison glands and fangs in their jaws, which they use to inject poison into insects. The venom paralyzes or kills their prey.

What we best seem to know spiders for are their webs. While no-one likes to accidentally walk into a spiderweb, it is hard not to appreciate the beauty and symmetry of a spiderweb glistening with dew in morning sunlight. The webs seem to appear overnight as if by some form of anarachnidian magic! The truth is, the spiders which build webs, were born knowing how to make a spider web. These spiders are equipped with six fingerlike silk glands called spinnerets which are located underneath their abdomen. The silk is squeezed out these spinnerets as a very thick liquid which dries instantly in the open air. The webs are still sticky though, and that is what traps the unwary insect who lands amidst the silk! The more the bug struggles, the more it gets entangled. All the spider has to do is bite the intended meal. This paralyzes the victim and allows the spider to carefully wrap up its meal in silk for later consumption. Other spiders use the silk as a sort of transportation system, a means of getting where they'd like to go by climbing up or down a long strand of silk. Still others are even more sophisticated. They do what is called ballooning, they cast out a long strand of silk in the breeze and get carried away,  sometimes for long distances! Ballooning is how many baby spiders first set out to explore their new world.

Other spiders do not build webs at all. Instead, they live in burrows in the ground, lining them with the silk to form a soft and warm bed. These spiders catch  prey by lurking just inside the burrow and pouncing on prey when it walks by!

The most feared of spiders is the Tarantula, though it is by no means the most dangerous or ill-tempered spider. Tarantulas are long lived animals, living up to 12 or 13 years and reaching around 10 inches in length! They are furry, nocturnal creatures, coming out at night to hunt large beetles, frogs and even small birds. Tarantulas are not poisonous spiders and are easily tamed . Many a tarantula owner claims to have a loving relationship with their furry arachnid!

Two spiders which do pose a hazard to humans are the Black Widow spider and the Brown Recluse spider. Both have poisons which can make people very ill and in some very rare cases, kill humans. What you need to understand is that spiders don't just go up and bit people. When people do get bitten it is usually because the spider feels threatened and is trying to protect itself. Black Widow spiders and almost blind, and spend most or all of their life in a sloppy looking web.

Spiders are quite easy to find. Some like to live in houses, some in gardens and some in more remote areas. They all help to reduce the insect population and unknowingly, many of them chase humans from one place to another!