Meet the spiders in your house with Travis McEnery!

Have you ever found a spider in your home and wondered whether or not you should evict it? If you are a dedicated arachnophile, perhaps you peacefully coexist with spiders no matter their size or habits. But not all spider housemates are equally polite, and you may want to be a little more selective about which spiders you accept as tenants. Some important considerations include the following: Will they make messy cobwebs and leave prey remains around the place, or are they tidy and discreet? Do they hang out in their webs all day, or move around the house, popping up in unexpected places to startle you with erratic movements? And is there any risk of the spiders defending themselves by biting human, feline, or canine members of the household? 

The answers these questions (and many more) can be found in the outstanding new youtube series The Spiders in Your House created by “amateur” arachnologist Travis McEnery. This post is an introduction to the series and Travis. I am a huge fan of both, and you should be too! 

One of Travis’ first videos, focused on the Common House Spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum).

These videos are deeply researched, thoughtful, and often hilarious profiles of spiders that you can probably find in or around your own house. I am continually impressed by Travis’ ability to get to the bottom of questions about the spiders he covers. I put “amateur” in scare quotes above when describing him because Travis’ approach to arachnology and the videos he creates is anything but. As a professional arachnologist myself I have learned something new in almost every video (like what was really behind that Mazda recall blamed on yellow sac spiders!), and Travis is directly contributing to spider science through original observations and experiments (he is the creator of my new favourite experimental method for assessing spider biteyness: the cheese test).

Hit play on this video to see the cheese test in action, but definitely also go back to the beginning and watch the whole thing! This episode on yellow sac spiders is just fantastic.

Through his videos, Travis is breaking down barriers between lay people, casual arachnofiles, and professional arachnologists by not only presenting information from the scientific literature in a fun and accessible way, but also by going directly to the scientists behind the studies to get additional context on their findings and sharing what they have to say with the audience. Also, the theme song absolutely slaps.

Click play to hear the theme song.

Another reason I love Travis’ work on this series is that he is constantly learning and sharing that process with the audience. When a fellow arachnologist pointed out a small mistake in one of his videos (on the false widow spiders), he made a whole new video correcting it and in the process shone a light on the messiness of science (we all make mistakes, all the time, and learning from them is a big part of science!) and the value of open communication, collaboration, and a supportive community. This ended up being one of my favourites!

The video correcting a mistake in the episode on false widow spiders.

Head over to Travis’ youtube channel for more excellent videos, consider subscribing, and let him know what you think in the comments! He is super responsive to questions and suggestions, and I am sure you will enjoy learning from him as much as I do! You can also support him and find even more content on his Patreon.

For a bit more information on Travis and his motivation for the series, here’s a piece in The Globe and Mail in which I also appear (talking about the spread of misinformation about spiders). I often lament the lack of factual information about spiders on the internet, and I am extremely happy to see Travis contributing such excellent content and the overwhelmingly positive response to it.

Announcing a new project: Recluse or Not?

This is just a quick announcement about a new citizen science and education project called Recluse or Not?

A recluse spider (Loxosceles arizonica). Photo: Sean McCann.

Recluse or Not? is a collaboration with North Carolina entomologists Eleanor Spicer Rice (Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Spiders) and Matt Bertone that you can read all about on the project page here! Briefly, it is a way for citizens to contribute data about where in North America recluse spiders (genus Loxosceles) occur, and to quickly get suspected recluse spiders identified by an expert. We also aim to correct myths and misinformation by regularly tweeting facts about recluse spiders from our new twitter account, @RecluseOrNot.

Spiders Unraveled! Outreach at Iona Beach

This weekend was, to my knowledge, the first ever spider day hosted by Metro Vancouver Regional Parks. Along with a fantastic crew of volunteer spider enthusiasts and park staff, I had the great pleasure of sharing some of the incredible biology of spiders and the joys of being a naturalist with kids and adults alike.

Here are some of the highlights of the day in photographs, kindly provided by Mike Boers and Sean McCann.

Gwylim Blackburn greeted visitors at the become a naturalist station. Here kids could make or borrow all the supplies they might need to be arachnologists for the day! These included ‘pooters’ (aspirators) made out of straws for collecting small spiders, personalized field notebooks, pencils, magnifying glasses, collecting containers, and a customized field guide to the spiders of Iona Beach.

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Gwylim with his table of supplies for creating the tools to become a naturalist! photo: Sean McCann

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Building pooters and field notebooks. Photo: Sean McCann

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A triumphant young naturalist holds her field notebook aloft, prepared for the adventures ahead! Photo: Sean McCann

Tanya Stemberger served up cricket smoothies and crunchy beetle larvae at the eat like a spider station. Here visitors learned about the health and environmental benefits of eating insects like spiders do! Read more about this part of the event here.

Tanya serves up a cricket smoothie for some kids who are brave enough to try entomophagy! Photo: Mike Boers

Some were a bit sceptical about the idea of eating insects at first.

But most were enthusiastic!

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Adding the cricket protein powder to the smoothie. Photo: Sean McCann

In the end, almost everyone accepted the challenge and won a special entomophagy achievement award for their bravery!

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Tanya shows off the highly prized entomophagy award certificate. Photo: Sean McCann

Next, kids got to participate in the spider olympics! The first event was to avoid predation by a spider.  The challenge was to to climb through a web without creating vibrations that would ring the dinner bells and alert the resident spider to the presence of potential prey!

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The spider web challenge! Photo: Sean McCann

Other spider olympic events included trying to jump as far as a jumping spider (they can jump distances up to 25 times their body length!) and run as fast as a house spider (330 body lengths in 10 seconds!).

The highlight of the day for most visitors was the spider tour of the beach with Sean McCann, where kids got to learn how to find spiders and put their new field notebooks and pooters to use!

Every hour Sean set out with a new group of naturalists to find the hidden treasures of Iona Beach. Photo: Mike Boers

Sean took his crew of naturalists to several habitats in search of spiders, starting with his favourite: under the driftwood.

Sean demonstrates his log-flipping technique. Photo: Mike Boers

Collecting a specimen! Photo: Mike Boers

There are all kinds of wonders to be found under the logs if you look closely! Photo: Mike Boers

The tour then moved on to using beating sheets to collect spiders from vegetation, and also included sampling the rich spider fauna on the walls of the washroom building.

Samantha Vibert and I introduced interested arachnophiles (and a lot of unsuspecting cyclists stopping for water/washroom breaks!) to basic spider anatomy and diversity. We had live specimens of several local species representing both wandering hunters and web-builders.

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Basic spider anatomy poster featuring a hobo spider, one of the commonest spiders found under the logs at Iona Beach. Created by Sean McCann

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I greet my first visitor of the day, with much excitement and waving of hands. Photo: Sean McCann

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Sam and one of our most enthusiastic young arachnologists, who stayed most of the day and went on 3 of the 4 spider walks! Photo: Sean McCann

All in all, I think the day was a great success! We had over 120 visitors, and a ton of fun. I hope it happens again next year!

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A wolf spider, Arctosa perita, on the sand of Iona Beach. Photo: Sean McCann

 

Here’s a small sample of the diverse spiders that we found on the day, or brought from nearby sites (photos by Sean McCann).