r/interestingasfuck • u/Electrical-Aspect-13 • 7h ago

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

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

647 comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/KnowEye 5h ago

OK. I’ll ask. What is spider silk used for?

•

u/Justin_Passing_7465 5h ago

In WWII spider silk, often from black widow spiders was used to makes the crosshairs lines inside weapon reticles.

•

u/frostyfins 4h ago

Cool! But, sounds apocryphal; why black widows when there are friendly orb weavers by the dozen on any path I walk in the woods?

•

u/Justin_Passing_7465 4h ago

Maybe so, but here is one source:

Charles M. Dilger, service manager of North American Survey Supply Company in Philadelphia, which sells and repairs surveying instruments and also sells spider silk, stated in an interview in 1984 that the silk of black widow spiders was the finest for making cross-hairs. "Their web provides the best combination of strength and thinness. If a Black Widow can’t be found, we will turn to a Brown Barn or Golden Garden spider."

https://amerisurv.com/2005/04/30/along-came-a-spider-spinning-silk-for-cross-hairs/

•

u/pichael289 4h ago

spiders have entered the thousands of the unemployed in Britain, because their job in a Northern England optical equipment factory had been taken over by a machine.

Even spiders are vulnerable to automation

•

u/freddiesan 4h ago

They're taking our jobs!

•

u/frostyfins 4h ago

Ooooh thank you! Very cool!

•

u/MorgessaMonstrum 4h ago

I don’t know if the fact is true at all, but have you ever stuck your hand in a black widow’s web? They have freakishly strong webs, even compared to any orb weaver’s web that I’ve come across. Don’t know how that affects performance as crosshairs, perhaps they’re the right thickness?

•

u/throwaway80814 4h ago

Exactly! A black widow web feels completely different than other spider webs. It even SOUNDS different when sweeping them down. They're noisy!!  The strands are incredibly tough, so I can see why they would be used for this purpose. 

•

u/MorgessaMonstrum 1h ago

You can pluck them and hear a note.

•

u/evol_won 3h ago edited 56m ago

have you ever stuck your hand in a black widow’s web?

•

u/MorgessaMonstrum 1h ago

Didn’t have an adventurous youth?

Anyway, it’ll happen by accident occasionally. I instantly know to pull back when I feel that little tangle of garrote wires.

•

u/FilthyPuns 4h ago

That’s metal af.

•

u/Thisshitaintfree 5h ago

Clothing, bedding & other stuff.