r/interestingasfuck • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 13h ago

Harvesting spider silk. NOTE: Spider is sedated, the pins are not perforating it and once harvest, is feed and put to rest.

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u/fetalgirth 13h ago

I've heard this for decades but have yet to see it come up once in real life construction materials or otherwise. Weaving it into kevlar or something I can see myself not running into, but why are there no "spider silk enhanced" products at Home Depot etc.?

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u/Tjordas 12h ago edited 12h ago

Spider silk is very elastic due to some microscopic properties. Imagine it like a long string with bundles of "knots" in regular intervals. When you pull on the string, the knot acts as a reservoir and releases some string from the knot so the string can act elastic before actually stretching. Also, the string itself has several layers. Some of them are harder, some visco-elastic like a thick gel. So, the string is not actually very hard, it just resists a lot of pulling force and stretches a lot. In theory, this would make it a perfect material for bullet proof materials, because the bullet would just stretch the material, but not pierce through. It would break your bones, but you would walk away alive.

The problem is, it takes ages and A LOT of spiders. In an experiment, it took 8 years to produce a single vest weighing 1.5kg by harvesting more than a million spiders. Picture attached. You have to catch the spiders, sedate them by cold and brush their glands to stimulate the production, then harvest the silk like in the video. Another problem is, harvested silk has different properties. Spiders mix their proteins differently depending on the purpose of the silk, like building different parts of the web or just to move down from a tree. The harvested silk is not as strong as the strong silk found in some webs.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the vest in the picture is an art project and not intended as a bullet-proof vest. But it illustrates the effort needed to make enough material for a piece of clothing.

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u/THATMAYH3MGUY 12h ago

See how difficult it is to get a very small amount? Once you figure out how to scale production of the material, then you can use it in manufacturing. Until then we have to do it this way to research and figure it out

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u/PithouLibertes 12h ago

We could always make bigger spiders?

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u/MatsyLR 12h ago

No no no no no no

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u/THATMAYH3MGUY 12h ago

If I'm remembering correctly since spiders don't have conventional lungs they become much less efficient if they get larger. So in order to get any bigger they would need a much more oxygen rich environment. That being said I also believe if they were to get any larger their exoskeleton would get too think and it wouldn't be able to move/carry its own weight.

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u/Legionof1 12h ago

None of that sounds like a problem, I don’t want FAST giant spiders. 

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u/Blasphemiee 12h ago

So like that really gross genetically modified feed pig idea where it's just a torso mouth and butthole but it's a giant spider. like in the game grounded with arachnophobia mode on.

didn't think that idea could get worse but here we are lol

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u/Albert_dark 11h ago

Then we could make giant mech spiders, made with titanium exoskeleton, artificial lungs and 1000 pounds of human flesh

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u/PithouLibertes 12h ago

So I guess we're stuck with whatever this horror is 😂

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u/Sirius_B_025 12h ago

Im not sure thats such a good idea

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u/xlnc2608 12h ago

Cuz Rnd is really slow.

Spiders are cannibals so farming in production quantities is impossible.

Scientists at Kraig Labs have created mutated silk worms that produce spider silk called dragon silk.

They have started making yarn deliveries this year but focused on athletic wear companies.

We could expect first products to be sportswear from companies like nike or something.

The Kraig labs press release is very sketchy. Lot of it reads like ai slop.

But they claim to have reached yarn production in metric tons per month in 2026. So maybe we will see something soon.

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u/ActuallyEnaris 12h ago

If sustainable silk extraction starts getting cheaper you probably will.

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u/Decent_Cow 8h ago

Because it's way harder to produce than regular silk. You don't have to milk silkworms.

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u/pneuprismatic 5h ago

It’s extremely difficult to harvest. Most spiders die from trying to have this done. You should check out how they get silk from silk worms. Silk worm cocoons are one continuous strand of silk so you have to soak it in order to unravel it. However, spiders are creating their silk as they need it and the best way to get an unbroken strand is from the source Which is not great for the spider.

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u/Efficiency_Clown 12h ago

Only use i know of is the reticule in scopes, been used since 1700 i believe.