There are thousands of different types of both venomous and harmless creepy crawlies around the world, but none of them elicits such a balanced combination of fear and awe as spiders. The 8-legged arachnids are legendary for quite a number of characteristics – from their web spinning artistry to first-rate hunting skills through to the simple fact that they poop silk.

Most species of spiders are native to pretty much every place in the world and that makes them virtually impossible to turn a blind eye to. The following are six interesting spider facts that we reckon you will be hearing for the first time:

1. Spiders are everywhere

Our small world averages about a million spiders per acre of land. Spiders are everywhere, even at your home, inside your bedroom. The fact that they feed on other more annoying bugs such as houseflies and mosquitoes should ideally buy them a stay, but humans just don’t like them.

There are about 40,000 different species of spiders and in there are species that way up to 170 grams; ones whose leg span is a whole 12 inches; and ones that are venomous. You wouldn’t know which species you are housing. If you suspect spiders have infested your home, get in touch with a Chandler Spider Control expert and have your house inspected.

2. They have blue blood

If anything justifies the seemingly universal fear of spiders, it has to be the blue blood that flows in them. Apparently the spider-equivalent of hemoglobin is a fluid called hemcocyanin, which, instead of iron, contains copper.

3. Spider silk is stronger than you think

Spider silk has been identified as one of the toughest non-synthetic substances in the world. To put that into perspective, steel of the same thickness has nothing on silk. The Darwin bark spider produces the strongest substance naturally made by a living organism – silk ten times stronger than Kevlar.

4. Some spiders eat their webs

Some species of spiders find abandoning perfectly good webs for new ones tedious and pretty wasteful. So, instead of spinning new webs using new silk, they eat old webs and reuse the amino acids from their old bug traps. Most species simply move on from the old webs without a second thought. One American species, however, uses the silk to cover its egg sac.

5. Some spiders have up to seven different types of silk

Forget the fact that silk is stored in liquid form and only solidifies when exposed to air; apparently, the webs you see in the corners of your house are made up of up to seven different types of spider silk. Each silk has a different purpose and is produced in a specific gland. Somehow, the spider knows what silk type to put where.

6. Spiders drink their prey

Yes, you heard that right. Spiders don’t chew or swallow their hunt. They inject digestive juices into their trapped prey and turn them liquid. Basically, spiders digest their food outside their own bodies… just like the absolute creeps they are!