How many spiders do you eat each year while sleeping? ZERO According to this exterminator.
Haven’t you heard? According to popular belief we eat spiders at night while we sleep! Is this possible? Do we eat spiders while sleeping? Granted some spiders are very very small. It is believable that small spiders may be able to slip into your mouth and stomach unnoticed. But one Florida Exterminator argues otherwise:
SANDS OF SAMAR, ISRAEL - JANUARY 12: This recent handout photo provided by the University of Haifa on January 12, 2010, shows a new and previously unknown species of spider in the dune of the Sands of Samar in the southern Arava desert region of Israel. A member of the Cerbalus genus, the spider has been named Cerbalus Aravensis. It has a leg-span that can reach up to 14 cm which makes it the largest spider of its type in the Middle East. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
You may well have heard this idea being thrown around all over the place: apparently we unwittingly swallow a steady diet of spiders in our sleep. As our mouths loll open, passing arachnids find themselves strangely compelled to crawl in, where we cheerfully gulp them down without knowing. Makes you shudder doesn’t it? Well before you start wearing a surgical mask to bed, you’ll be pleased to hear that this is just an urban legend.
Over the past few years, the idea has been trotted out all over the internet and beyond. Some sources say the average is seven in an entire lifetime, while others insist it’s eight in a single year. Even the lowest estimates are significantly higher than the true figure – zero.
The writer proceeds to give a short history on the origins of this myth. Great read. The point that he underscored that most professional spider exterminators will appreciate is this, Why would a spider travel into your mouth? Most spiders don’t just wonder around aimlessly. Many spiders will rarely leave their webs. Those that do travel about at night are often hunting spiders. So perhaps you swallowed a fly, and you don’t know why. So you swallow a spider to catch the fly… Kidding. Really great article by our fellow exterminator. Bulwark Exterminating gives you two thumbs up.
Back to the question at hand, now that we have some opposing views. What do you think?
Do we eat spiders at night?
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While working as a pest exterminator Vancouver WA we have never ever talked to a person that has actually awoke with a spider in their mouth. We think this myth started in the farming days when homes were quickly constructed without any types of building codes. It seems more probably in a situation such as that, though still probably not likely.