GGA Blog

We all know spider silk is sticky, and if it were not for the adhesive qualities in spider silk, spider webs would never successfully trap insects. So how do spiders avoid getting stuck within their own webs? This question has been asked many times over the years, and there is probably not an entomologist in existence that has not been asked this question at least once. As it turns out, there is a common answer to this question, but the common answer is not so accurate. Many people claim that in addition to excreting silk, spiders also excrete an oil that prevents them from getting stuck to their own silk. This explanation sounds plausible enough, but the fact is, no known spider possesses these oil-secreting glands. The explanation that says spiders excrete an oil to avoid sticking to their webs is so old and widespread that even some spider experts are not clear on the matter. In any case, this explanation may have been a reasonable hypothesis at one time, but science has known for decades that spiders do not possess oil-secreting glands. Actually spiders simply step around

Male jumping spiders are not picky when it comes to choosing a mate. These spiders cannot waste too much time trying to discern the bad lady spiders from the good ones. This lack of choosiness on the part of male jumping spiders has been known to science for some time, but now researchers are learning that being eaten by a female spider might not be just because the males are not choosy when choosing a mate. There are more than five thousand different species of jumping spiders in the world, and many of their habitats overlap. Many of the males from different species can be easily discerned by the colorful stripes that so many of them are sporting. The females, on the other hand, are darker

It is not uncommon to hear about people spotting giant and venomous spiders in rainforests and even desert climates, but some spiders can tolerate a variety of different environments. So finding a big and venomous spider in a region that is not known for spider activity is entirely possible. Just ask one family from Michigan. A Michigan homeowner entered his garage last Sunday night and then promptly tried to leave as quickly as he could. I know what you are thinking, this homeowner is afraid of monsters, but that is not it, instead this man encountered an enormous

Although most Americans are still grossed out by eating bugs, many Americans are starting to realize that eating bugs is good for you health. It seems like cricket powder is available at every local grocery store these days. So the days of regarding bugs as inedible vomit-inducing food on shows like Fear Factor are now coming to an end. At least the attitudes that most Americans have towards eating bugs have probably changed for the better

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Squirrel week is meant to celebrate everything about squirrels and everything squirrel related. Squirrel day is the one day of the year when we certainly refrain from harming squirrels. Most people, of course, are not even aware that a "squirrel day" really exists, but I am sure that not many of you would enjoy killing squirrels on any day. However, this did not seem to be the case nearly a century ago in 1918. A newspaper released during this time revealed an inhumane aspect of our culture's history. The newspaper contained an announcement asking all "schoolchildren", no matter their age, race, creed or gender, to kill all the squirrels that they see on sight. That is a pretty surprising newspaper release to find in the archives when searching for a happy story about squirrels on squirrel day. During the week of April 29th

Spiders are as fascinating as they are terrifying, and their behavior can often times appear unusual to the layman viewer. For one thing, spiders vary tremendously when it comes to diet. Some spiders prefer to scavenge, whereas others prefer to eat seeds and plants. Some larger sized spiders can even wolf-down some rodents. One type of spider in particular, the Nephila pilipes,

Driver Ants May Be Worse To Have Around Than Fire Ants We are all familiar with fire ants and their extremely painful, and sometimes deadly, bites. The fire-ant populations have been exploding in the warmer regions of the United States, which has some experts concerned. However, there does exist certain types of ants that are far more dangerous to people than fire ants. One such ant is known as the driver ant

We all love raccoons. In fact, I don't think that I have ever heard anybody say that they don't like raccoons, and I doubt if I ever will. Raccoons are cute, they seem lovable, and now they are helping researchers uncover some of the mysterious about cancer. It has been known for quite some time now that many raccoons from Northern California and Oregon are developing brain tumors