Fun Fact Friday | Featured Photographer | Spiders, or Rather Spider Webs

Okay, I am so excited about this blog post for Fun Fact Friday!  Not only because I get to share a fun fact or two about spider webs, but because I get to share this amazing photo by our family friend Susan Estes.  Water drops on a spider web is incredible to see in person. You don't often find a photo that captures it, but this photo is an exception.  Enjoy!  And then keep reading below for some interesting facts on spider webs.

Spiders and their webs baffle people; scientists and everyone else.  Here are a few fun facts about spider webs:

1. Spiders' silk, while still inside the spider is a water soluble liquid.  Once the spider pulls the silk, it becomes a non-water-soluble solid. As you can see in the photo above, the water droplets do not saturate the web, but bead up on it.  Scientists do not think that the change takes place as a reaction to air.  They rather speculate that as the spider pulls the thread it changes the molecular structure.
2. Spiders do not become entangled in their own web.  The reason for this is attributed to a number of factors.  Including claws on the end of their feet and the fact that spiders use more than one type of silk to build their web.
3. Spiders silk being researched because of the incredible strength and ability to absorb impact.  The strength of spider silk is compared to steel and Kevlar.

Micah Wood

Peak Pest Management

503-998-4322

360-607-1933

206-790-8285

micah@peak-pest-management.com

www.peak-pest-management.com

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References and Credits:

How Do Spiders Avoid Getting tangled in Their Own Webs?, Every Day Mysteries
Fun Science Facts From The Library of Congress. www.loc.gov

Susan Estes, Water Drops on a Spider Web

Notes:

If you have an interesting photo that is relevant to this blog and would like to have it featured, please email submissions to micah@peak-pest-management.com.

Bed Bug Pest Control Has Been Improved Because Of Research By Urban Entomologists

At Peak Pest Managment we consider it very important to keep researching and learning.  Some of our research for pest control involves reading materials produced by leading urban entomologists, like Michael F Potter of the University of Kentucky. We recently posted an article on our website about how he and other urban entomologists shape the way that pest control companies do pest control.  Here is a link to that post (click here to read it).  His area of expertise is bed bugs which have recently made a resurgence in the US.

We are really thankful for urban entomologists and others who study entomology and make it possible for us to continue to learn and grow as pest control companies.  As we read research papers and documentation we are able to grow in the way we understand and apply pest control.  Their continued research allows us to become more enviromentally friendly, even more pet and family safe, and more effective at the same time.

Pest control companies are often given credit for the whole process of pest control research through extermination.  And pest control companies do end up learning and growing on the job, but the bulk of the research comes from the years and years of focused study on specific pests by entomologists.