As the temperatures drop, you may notice some extra visitors in your home - of the eight-legged variety.
Whether you’re a friend of spiders or foe, the idea of spiders near the space we sleep can be enough to keep some people up at night. An idea prevalent in pop culture takes it one step further, suggesting we swallow eight spiders a year as we sleep.
THE QUESTION
Do we swallow spiders as we sleep?
THE ANSWER
Unlikely. Experts agree this is an urban myth given natural spider behavior. ?
WHAT WE FOUND
Our Verify team visited the “Insect Zoo” at the University of Georgia’s entomology department to speak with Dr. Marianne Shockley. She addresses such concerns every year as part of the department's outreach programs.
“We hear that quite often actually," Shockley said. "People ask, they're genuinely curious or they're genuinely concerned.”
The university is one of 20 across the U.S. that offers an undergraduate bachelor’s degree in entomology, according to the Entomological Society of America.
There are several species in North America that can be found in homes, particularly this time of year, according to Shockley.
“This time of year, we start to notice spiders more in our structures and in our homes because it's getting cool outside," Shockley said. "They're finding harborage, they're finding a warm place. They're going to be in those dark places, spaces that don't get a lot of foot traffic or movement."
Yet, experts like Shockley agree spiders have little interest in humans - sleeping or not - given we are not a food source.
"Really it's wasting their energy, wasting their web, wasting their venom,' Shockley said. "It's very cost-effective to stay away from humans."
“Especially if you're a snorer,” Shockley said. “The way we smell, the way we sound. According to their natural history and their natural behavior, wandering around on your bed and close to you as you sleep is just not something they would do."
According to Shockley, the chance of swallowing a spider, let alone several a year, is highly unlikely.
“You'd have to be in an environment with an enormous amount of spiders,” Shockley said. “Probably on a floor or a forest floor where you'd really have to be inundated with what's coming and going overnight. I will go ahead and say, it is a myth."
