Scared of spiders? Avoid being at home at 7.35pm when males are on the prowl, say experts
Scared of spiders? Avoid being at home at 7.35pm when males looking for a mate are most likely to be on the prowl, say experts
- Experts created a free app for the British public to track encounters with spiders
- Over five years, they collected more than 10,000 records from 250 locations
- Sightings peaked between 6:00am and 8:00am and then again at 7:35pm
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Scientists have pinpointed the perfect time to leave the house if you want to avoid running into a spider.
The creepy crawlies are most likely to be spotted scuttling around Britain’s houses around at 7:35pm each evening, a study found.
Researchers said males often enter houses to search for females, who like to set up webs in windows and doorways.
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Scientists have pinpointed the perfect time to leave the house if you want to avoid running into a spider. The creepy crawlies are most likely to be spotted scuttling around Britain’s houses around at 7:35pm each evening, a study found (stock image)
Experts at the University of Gloucestershire created a free app called ‘Spider in da House’ for the British public to track encounters with spiders.
Over five years, they collected more than 10,000 records from 250 locations to find out what time spiders are most likely to be spotted.
Participants noted the time, room of the house, what part of the room the animal was found in, and the sex of the spider.
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Their research showed encounters in British homes peaked between 6:00am and 8:00am and then again at 7:35pm.
The morning trend was most likely due to people waking up and spotting spiders in their sinks and baths that had crawled there overnight, scientists said.
The evening spike could be the result of people sitting down to watch television – making them more likely to spot arachnids in their home, researchers said.
The research showed encounters in British homes peaked between 6:00am and 8:00am and then again at 7:35pm. The morning trend was most likely due to people waking up and spotting spiders in their sinks and baths that had crawled there overnight, scientists said (stock image)
But a flurry of sightings outside of respondents’ living rooms suggest this time may be important to the creatures’ biology.
‘We think that while people are more likely to be sat down and able to view spider at 7.30pm the pattern of sightings in rooms other than living rooms suggests that it is not just people driving the pattern – so we think it probably does reflect some spider ecology too,’ said stud lead author Professor Hart told the Telegraph.
‘The main message is like to convey is that UK spiders are basically totally harmless and that spiders are incredibly important predators – natural pest controllers and their predation encourages higher biodiversity.
‘So we should really celebrate spider season.’
The study, published in the journal Arachnology, suggests as many as 80 per cent of sightings were males on the hunt for a mate.
Males were found to be more common on walls, while female preferred ceilings, doors and window, it found.
‘The females can be seen on webs in garages and windowsills, while the males wander around looking for chances to mate,’ added Professor Hart.
‘And of course our houses are nice places for them to come and do that.’
IS A FEAR OF SPIDERS IN OUR DNA?
Recent research has claimed that a fear of spiders is a survival trait written into our DNA.
Dating back hundreds of thousands of years, the instinct to avoid arachnids developed as an evolutionary response to a dangerous threat, the academics suggest.
It could mean that arachnophobia, one of the most crippling of phobias, represents a finely tuned survival instinct.
And it could date back to early human evolution in Africa, where spiders with very strong venom have existed millions of years ago.
Study leader Joshua New, of Columbia University in New York, said: ‘A number of spider species with potent, vertebrate specific venoms populated Africa long before hominoids and have co-existed there for tens of millions of years.
‘Humans were at perennial, unpredictable and significant risk of encountering highly venomous spiders in their ancestral environments.’
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