Why Don’t Spiders Stick to Their Webs?

Spiderwebs are designed to trap bug-sized creatures. So how come spiders don’t get stuck?

Hosted by: Hank Green
----------
Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters -- we couldn't make SciShow without them! Shout out to Justin Ove, John Szymakowski, Fatima Iqbal, Justin Lentz, David Campos, and Chris Peters.
----------

Or help support us by becoming our patron on Patreon:
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?

Sources:
spider, web, sticky, trap, silk, thread, orb weaver, cocoon, balloon, setae, tarsi, feet, hair, arachnid, coating, sci show, quick question, hank green, science

[sawface]

that pun.... i have no words how to react to that

[roseg]

I like spiders... From a distance, that is.
Interesting video.

[NobleHusky]

*Hits blunt*

Why don't Spiderman stick to his webs?

[TheManOfRash]

It's midnight here.
I had to go for a walk around the block after you made that joke.

[nolanthiessen]

Hang-gliding


nope.
nope.
nope.

Just nope.

[MegaRudeBoy]

There are no old videos, just undiscovered knowledge. Thanks younger Hank!

[Dantick]

So who is more annoyed? the human who walked into a web or the spider who had it s web destroyed? :P

[GKOALA]

"Web masters"... That's one of those jokes that just gets funnier and funnier each time it pops in your mind. LOL!

[Generalth]

I honestly laughed at that pun. Am I a terrible human being now?

[scottvelez]

Maybe the person who named it the World Wide Web was a spider!



Loominarty confermed?

[Okuni_]

spiders are the only web developers who are happy to find bugs

[erikasteele]

I hate walking into spider webs as friends look at me weird when I do the spider dance.

[NML]

Hmm ''sticky and touching you everywhere''

[theldraspneumonoultramicro]

imagine this, you are out for a walk in the forest a nice sunny afternoon, birds singing, insects buzzing around, trees rustling in the wind, then suddenly you walk in to a spider web big and strong enoth to trap you and a spider the size of a minivan is slowly making its way down toward you with venom dripping from its fangs, as it comes up to you it raises its fang and chomps down on you, or imagine if it rolled you up in a web and left to eat you later. perhaps, instead of doing any of those it will start eating you right away, maybe all of its puppy sized babies swarms you and chomps down on you as you struggle and scream for help that will never come.

if you suffer from arachnophobia then sorry if i gave you nightmares.

[alfredomarquez]

"Arachnology; for the entomologist with mad scientist tendencies."

[darkmage]

I remember hearing about the oil theory when I learned about spider anatomy in high school biology classes. Glad to know they might have finally confirmed it as true in some species!

[MxHxCentaurus]

"The Real Webmasters...."
Made my day.... xD

[nickmazzeo]

I heard recently on a Ted talk that looking through the lenses of bug eyes a spider web looks like a beautiful flower attracting a bug to it and the flower is the only sticky part and the rest is what the spider walks on.

[theSweedio]

I haven't laughed so much at a SciShow episode before this one, only because of the pun at the end and the look on Hank's face when he said it.

[jakov]

i found on one documentary that they separately make the silk and the "glue" which is then placed on the lines in dots like a mine field.... so they can move by simply stepping in narrow spaces between those dots of "glue" with their pointy legs