Welcome to the international spider day website

🎃 31ST ocT: Because spiders DESERVE AN INTERNATIONAL DAY

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.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SPIDERS!

UNDERSTANDING SPIDERS WITH A SMILE

spiders in three words

ESSENTIAL

Spiders decisively regulate insect populations around the world. It is estimated that spiders can consume up to 800 million tons of prey per year (Nyffleer & Birkhofer 2017). This amount is equivalent to 15 times the weight of the population of Europe!

HARMLESS

It is estimated that 99% of spiders around the world are harmless. Spiders do not want to attack people and rarely bite to defend themselves. Only a few spiders, in certain regions of the world, have powerful poisons. Nevertheless, the number of cases needing medical attention is really low.

COOL

There are more than 50,400 species of spiders in the world, which makes them one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet. There are spiders of all colors, lifestyles and sizes you can imagine: Ask for what you want, because in the world of spiders, we have it.

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SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES