Halloween Spiders and Bats Oh My!

Halloween Spiders and Bats Oh My!!

They might make cute Halloween decorations, but spiders and bats are some creepy (and pretty cool!) creatures. We found out some truly frightening facts about these fascinating animals and wanted to share them with you. You might not want to read this before going to bed!

Spiders

Credit: Black Widow Spider/Wikimedia
Venomous Black Widow

Did you know that all spiders are venomous, except one family? That’s right; spiders use their venom to paralyze their prey. Eeek! What is even creepier is that there are some spiders that don’t use their webs to catch prey, like the wolf spider. These spiders just stalk and overtake their prey. Jumping spiders do not use webs either, but pounce on their prey. Now that will give you nightmares!

Speaking of nightmares, there is a spider in South America called the Goliath Bird-eating Tarantula. Yes, it is as scary as it sounds. This is the largest spider in the world and can reach up to 1 foot in length and has 1-inch long fangs! And true to its name, it does, in fact, eat birds. We’re so relieved these are not in North America!

Credit: Sheri (Bellatrix on Flickr)
Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula

As creepy as they can be, though, spiders are some pretty amazing creatures. If you’ve ever seen an intricately spun spider web, you’ve been amazed at what they could do. Did you know that for it’s weight, spider web silk is tougher than steel? That’s pretty cool!

Credit: "Dewy spider web". Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dewy_spider_web.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Dewy_spider_web.jpg

Bats

Okay, spiders are creepy, but at least we get used to the sight of them and they lose some of their creepiness. But, bats? Yeah, I’m good not seeing them. Here’s an amazing (and terrifying) fact about bats: they make up a quarter of all mammals around the world. That’s a lot of bats!!! Also, unlike many small mammals, bats can have a pretty long life. Some brown bats can live as long as 30 years!

The world’s largest bat is the Flying Fox bat that lives in the South Pacific. It has a wingspan of up to 6-feet! The smallest bat, the Bumblebee bat, lives in Thailand and is smaller than a thumbnail and weighs less than a penny. Somehow, that seems just as creepy as the huge bat.

Credit: By Rusty Clark from merritt Island FLA (Fruit Bats / Flying Foxes) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Credit Rusty Clark Wikimedia Commons
As much as these animals give us the shivers down our backs, they are good to have around. Why? They eat bugs! Single brown bats alone can catch up to 1200 mosquito-size insects in one hour! So, yes, we need the bats and spiders so insects don’t overrun us. We just don’t want the guys in our homes, right? That’s where SWAT Services, Pest Control Marietta, comes in. We’ll help keep your home free of the pests that don’t belong there. Call us if we can help with the pests invading your home. And for just a few more days, you can take advantage of our October special: 5 quarters of residential pest control for the price of 4. This special is only good until October 31st, so call us today!

SWAT Services
1990 Lower Roswell Rd
Marietta, GA 30068
770-565-7928


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