DailyDirt: Arachnids In Unexpected Places

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's never fun to walk unexpectedly into a spider web because you didn't see it. And even if you're not a true arachnophobe, it's still a bit unsettling to see a spider scurry across a wall or the floor in the way only an eight-legged creature can. If you genuinely like spiders, then you perhaps these stories on finding arachnids in unexpected places will be fascinating. Otherwise, maybe you'd better not read on.

• There are arachnids on your face. Right. Now. Seriously. Okay, so microscopic arachnids -- distantly related to spiders and ticks -- that live in your facial pores (and on nearly every mammal on the planet) aren't visible to the naked eye and are generally harmless, but still. [url]
• In 2013, in the Brazilian town of Santo Antonio da Platina, spiders built a big web overhead and the spiders crawled around a disturbingly large area where it looked like spiders were just floating in the sky. A biologist identified the spiders as Anelosimus eximius and said this wasn't an unusual event for other cities like Sao Paulo -- so you've been warned, folks. [url]
• Mazda issued a recall for 42,000 cars because the yellow sac spider likes to crawl into Mazda engines through a fuel tank hose and potentially cause a fire. Apparently, these particular spiders like Mazda vehicles because this isn't the only recall issued due to these little guys crawling into Mazdas. Zoom-Zoom! Yikes! [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: anelosimus eximius, animals, arachnids, arachnophobia, biology, car recalls, spiders
Companies: mazda