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| You Are Here: Burke Museum : Spider Myths : General : Tiny Fangs |
General Fallacies
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| Fangs of typical spider from below, at tips of
chelicerae (jaws) with teeth. Note that fangs are seldom visible
from above. From a photo by Bob Thomson Click image to enlarge |
Myth: Most spiders could not bite humans because their fangs are too small.
Fact: That may actually be true of a few of the
smallest spiders, and of groups like crab spiders that have small fangs. However,
there are well-documented human bite cases from spiders as small as 3 millimeters
long. (The bites caused no ill effects, of course!)
It's not that spiders can't bite, but that they don't bite except very rarely.
And on those rare occasions, the bite almost always has only trivial effects
on the human, who after all weighs from a million to several million times as much
as the spider!
Click this link for an example of a respected hospital putting out ridiculous misinformation on this subject – page unchanged since first spotted in July 2007.
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to Spider Myths author, Rod Crawford This page last updated 2 September, 2010 This site best viewed at 800 x 600 using IE 5.0 or above. |