We all know that dogs bark, but do spiders? We’re all familiar with mythical spiders being blamed for decades of flatulence, but are barking spiders a real creature? This post is all about Barking spiders and some facts you might not know.
Are these spiders really barking?
The Barking Spider is, in fact, real and even has a couple of species. One of these species is also known as the Queensland whistling tarantula, that makes noises that are similar to barking, but it doesn’t happen the same way as dogs bark.
A couple of these species of barking spiders live throughout Australia. A common thing that insects do is stridulate, which is when insects or arachnids rub their legs, wings, or other parts of their body together to make a loud noise.
This stridulation is what happens when you hear crickets chirping throughout the night, for example. The Barking Spiders do a similar thing, but they have much louder noise that happens to sound like they are barking.
In Latin this species is called crassipes, and this stands for “Fat Leg” because these Barking Spiders tend to have very long front legs. These large legs and can almost look like crabs with their two longer pincer arms.
Bark Spiders are camouflage experts.
The Bark Spiders aren’t able to bark like Australia’s barking spider can, but they are named for their relationship to tree bark.
Since these spiders can be very large they need an effective way to hide from their predators. Some of these bark spiders are able to blend in with their environment very well.
These spiders often live around fallen trees and can blend in effectively with the tree bark making them hard to spot. These spiders do not spin webs like most spider species we are familiar with, but rather actively hunt for their prey and only use their silk for mating rituals.
The barking spider on the other hand, sometimes create burrows. These burrows that the barking spiders dig can sometimes be over 6 feet deep! These spiders can go undetected and can quickly pop up out of their holes to capture prey as well as be hidden deep enough to protect themselves from danger.
Other interesting facts about the Barking Spider
Since these spiders tend to live underground in their burrows, they can sometimes have the threat of flash floods to worry about. They prepare for this by building air pockets protected with their webs to be able to survive such conditions.
These spiders also have a very long life span and females can live for over 20 years, while the males live on average from 5 to 8 years.
Barking spiders don’t have any teeth to chew their food so they actually will liquefy their prey with their venom in order to digest their meals. Their food choices typically range from frogs, insects, lizards and sometimes even birds that fall from their nests, which has also given them the nickname of the “bird eating spider”.
Thankfully these spiders usually live in the deserts and wilderness of Australia, so you probably won’t be seeing them in your house anytime soon, but bark spiders are regulars throughout North America. If you do happen to have any issues with any sized spiders in your home, feel free to reach out to us here at Rove Pest Control to help take care of your pest control needs.
c
Did This Blog Help You? We would greatly appreciate if you could comment below and share on Facebook
Have a question for us? Be sure to reach out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RoveMinnesota
P.S. Have a pest issue? As a first time customer with Rove Pest Control – Click Here to get $50 off your initial service!
Did you get value from this post on, Are Barking Spiders Real, please retweet below.