Today's interesting fact has to do with Spiders.

Tarantulas are very large spiders, and make popular pets. The largest ones, come with red hairs that cover their bodies. Not a lot of people know that you should handle these large creatures with care, as the hairs easily come off the spiders, and if they go into your or an animals eyes, can cause temporary blindness. If they go into the lungs, they can cause an allergic reaction and even foster an infection. These large spiders also have another trick up thier sleaves, it was recently discovered that their feet have web producing spinnerettes that help them climb, something that puzzeled some scientists given the weight of the spiders.

Newly born spiders fly to new environments, by climbing to the top of the highest feature they can find, then spin a fine thread of silk, which is picked up by the breeze. Eventually the thread will pull them up into the air, so they can settle as much as hundreds of miles from their birthplace.

I was specificaly asked how spiders get from one tree to another, to build their webs. I've seen this in action. Just as a baby spider spins its parachute, a larger spider intent on creating a large web will spin a fine thread into the air. Once it is picked up by the breeze, it poduces a thicker and sticker thread, followed by a thick but not sticky thread. When the thread catches on another object, the spider fastens the thread to what it is sitting on, as an anchor, then climbs the thread, and adds another guideline as it climbs to where the thread caught. Amazing to watch.