Welcome to the international spider day website

Spiders are the most diverse group of predators on the planet, with more than 50,400 recorded species. They are essential building blocks of ecosystems around the world. Without them, life as we know it would not be possible. However, spiders are feared or deprecated. This negative view of spiders is unfair and needs to be changed through outreaching of high quality. In the same way, misinformation and sensationalist news need to be countered. For this reason, several researchers suggest an international day to celebrate spiders. This initiative aims to make visible the importance of spiders in ecosystems.

The suggested date is October 31, the day in which Halloween night is celebrated, when everyone, consciously or unconsciously, is thinking about, and even decorating their house with, webs and spiders. Halloween wouldn't be the same without spiders. Aside of their symbolic meaning, this night is probably the only one in which spiders are welcome in many homes. Let's take the last night of October as an opportunity to demistify spiders, in addition to having fun carving pumpkins and decorating our homes.