Talk:Spider web

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Contents 1 How do spiders make webs 2 New image 3 Spider webs and drugs 4 Anchor Points 5 WikiLinks

[edit] How do spiders make webs

Please can someone explain how spiders actually make webs, especially large webs, it has always amazed me how they manage to get a web across such relatively large distances. Bluemoose 14:20, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to see some explanation about differences between webs spun by different spider species.

Well according to this video: Webs of Intrigue a spider shoots out the web from it's abdomen and allows it to travel with the wind to it's destination. I highly recommend getting that video if you want more information. I haven't watched it in a while, maybe I'll watch it soon and brush up on the pecularities of the spinning process. --Fir0002 www 00:55, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

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I second Bluemoose's request. Since moving last year from spider-unfriendly San Francisco (too cold and windy) to spider-abundant Oakland, I've now enjoyed two summers of wonderment. My back yard is constantly being criss-crossed by spiders, attaching lead lines, catching a breeze, and somehow transversing great expanses of air, laying super-strong silk across up to ten feet of space. Then they somehow make it back again, trailing another line, to triangulate the space. Then, as I understand it, they use a whole different spinerette (silk-producing gland) to make one big circle; then spokes; then the spiral. They follow this feat with endless hours and days in wait for some hapless flying insect to get snagged. I'm spending much too much time standing in my back yard on sunny days watching these marvelous creatures at work. When they lay lines across my pathway, I always feel guilty when I accidentally crash through it. Sometimes I even apologize, "Spider, I'm sorry you put all this work into making this glorious web; heck, if I spent my entire life trying, I couldn't do what you just accomplished since an hour ago when I last crashed through your work; but I've got to get to my back porch." Please, someone tell us more. How is all this incredible engineering achieved by such an erroneously loathed creature? Are webs gender-specific? (i.e., Do both males and females make webs of this type?) How cruel is it when I destroy one on purpose, simply for my own convenience (even if I do apologize)? How long can a spider go between meals? (They always seem to be waiting, rather than eating.) When I stun a fly (with no sympathy) and place it on a web, is that akin to feeding wild animals (i.e., a No-No)? -- Terry Carroll, Oakland, California, September 1, 2005

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The belief that spiderweb is an effective treatment for cuts appears to be quite widespread (I have come across it in England and in Laos). Does anyone know anything about this? 202.62.101.70 06:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC) James Haughton, Vientiane, Lao PDR, Jan 31 2006

[edit] New image

I'd like to propose this image for the spider web article.

That's a nice image. You can post it to the page yourself if you like. No need to ask anyone's permission. Remember Wikipedia is built by the users.151.205.106.107 16:25, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spider webs and drugs

I clearly remember reading the New Scientist article (force-feeding drugs to spiders...it's not the kind of article you forget in a hurry), so I checked the New Scientist website. Verification of the existence of the article can be found here.

Simon --192.93.164.20 07:03, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anchor Points

I have a web pictured here that has an anchor point 12 feet away that is only 2.5 feet off the ground. Any ideas on how a spider can spin a web over that distance without the web being caught in grass or other plants?

[edit] WikiLinks

Hello, KarlBunker. You reverted my last edit (my first edit!) saying that the wikilinks I added were trivial. According to the Manual of Style, it recommends that wikilinks be added where users' curiousity would naturally take them and that 10% is the upper limit of the number of words that should be wikilinked. As I read this article earlier, I was frustrated that I couldn't click on "surface tension" and "protein" and "prey" to satisfy my curiousity. There are 1166 words in the article, and only 31 wikilinks, for a rate of 2.6%. I don't think this is too many wikilinks, and I'd like you to consider re-reverting back.Cas510 05:17, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Cas510, some of the links you added were a good idea, but I thought several were trivial words that didn't fit in with the purpose of internal links, for example: vibration, paper, morning, spray paint. I've replaced a lot of your links; I should have done that in the first place, rather than just reverting your edit, but I was lazy. Sorry about that, and thanks for opening a polite dialog rather than just re-reverting. KarlBunker 09:48, 19 September 2006 (UTC)