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Spiders are quite possibly the creepiest thing on the planet and will have even the most burly man screaming like a school girl and jumping on a chair. But they are actually weirdly fascinating. OK, bear with us on this one.

New BBC Four programme Spider House, which sees an entire house filled with all kinds of the eight-legged freaks, seems like the stuff of nightmares within nightmares within nightmares. But actually it’s 90 minutes of, interesting, albeit insanely disturbing, spider facts.

We warn you: If you do plan on watching, it’s a full hour and a half of spider close ups, spiders moving about, spider cannibalism. You name it, it’s in there.

However, although they might give you the heebie jeebies, there’s a lot you might not know. Like did you know Daddy Longlegs are actually very vicious (to other spiders, not humans)? Or that spiders can’t get wet? And why they always seem to pop up when we’re in the tub?

This is what you’ll learn if you just grin and bear it:

1. Spiders eat the equivalent of the human population of the UK in flies and other insects every year
AD_149943648.jpgSpiders liquefy flies before consuming them (Picture: Getty)

2. Why do we find spiders in the bath? Because they like to have a drink. Makes sense. Our houses are pretty dry, so they head to the bathroom to quench their thirst

3. If you see a spider scurrying fast they have sex on their mind – they’re searching for a mate
Mandatory Credit: Photo by FLPA/REX (3280215a) Common House Spider (Tegenaria domestica) adult, on web in building, England Nature(Picture: FLPA/REX)

4. False widow bites are not actually that bad. According to spider expert Tim Cockerill: ‘The false widow bite is no worse than a bee sting’
AD_149943580.jpgA False Widow spider

5. Tarantulas don’t like our weather. That’s why they don’t live here. So don’t panic, you won’t find one of those climbing back up your plug hole

6. Spiders’ stomachs can only take liquids, so they have to liquefy their food before they eat it. They bite their prey and empty their stomach liquids into the fly which turns it into soup for them to drink. Yummy.

7. There is such thing as the British Tarantula show, which is basically like Crufts for spiders. Think thousands upon thousands of tarantulas in one room. Shudder
Idlewild Elementary second grader Nathanial Ivy holds Legs, a tarantula, that Preston Warford of Terminix uses to teach students about bugs and how they can be beneficial to the ecosystem at the Memphis, Tenn., school, Friday, March 1, 2013, in Memphis. APA friendly tarantula (Picture: AP)

8. Spiders are covered in water-repellent hairs, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so they can’t get wet. It also means they always float and some can survive under water for hours. That’s how they climb back up the drain
Mandatory Credit: Photo by FLPA/REX (3280216a) Giant House Spider (Tegenaria gigantea) adult, in bathroom sink at night, Suffolk, England NatureDon’t wash spiders down the plug hole! (Picture: FLPA/REX)

9. But soaps and products that get washed down the drain destroy the spider’s ability to trap the air so they sink and drown. So don’t wash them down the sink people, take them outside and set them free!

10. Male spiders don’t have a penis. Instead, they have two appendages called pedipalps, which they charge with sperm and insert into the female spider’s reproductive opening. Oh, the old romantics.


Spider House is on BBC Four October 29 at 9pm.

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