Welcome to my drive-thru burrow. Can I take you for my order?
If you’re already outside or in a hurry to get outside, we’ve put just a couple interesting facts from this OutsideSC story about trapdoor spiders right up top. Don’t forget to come back when you have a few minutes to enjoy the whole story!
This is a question that is often asked concerning spiders (and snakes), but first, we’d like to share something that might not be obvious. When you use the word poisonous, that means something that you eat that has poison in it, like certain types of mushrooms, for example. The word to use for something that bites you and injects a poison/toxin is venomous. And just about all spiders are venomous, but very few have venom that can cause considerable harm to humans. Trapdoor spiders are not dangerous to humans and their bite is generally compared to something like a bee sting.
Last year on a hike in Croft State Park in Spartanburg, South Carolina, we were lucky enough to cross paths with this Trapdoor spider (Ummidia sp.). I had seen spiders like this on nature shows over the years, but never one out in the wild.
Trapdoor spiders get their name from the unique technique they use for grabbing a bite to eat. These amazing creatures build their own version of a drive-thru window, only at this fast-food venue, the customer becomes the order.
A trapdoor spider will dig a burrow several inches deep, then line it with spider silk, and in the final step, it will fashion a circular lid on top of the burrow. The spider camouflages the lid with debris so that it will blend in perfectly with the terrain. With the construction process completed, the trapdoor spider lifts the silk-hinged lid and climbs down into its den. There it waits, until it feels the unmistakable vibrations of a juicy insect or other small critter passing by. Then, before the unsuspecting critter knows what hit it, the trapdoor spider springs out from the burrow, snatches its prey, and drags it back inside, the hinged door slowly creaking shut behind it. The critter’s delightful stroll has come to an end, but the trapdoor spider’s delicious dinner has just begun. Check out this video from BBC Earth which shows a trapdoor spider in action:
I wish I had something in the photo I took at Croft to show the scale of this trapdoor spider, but it was a big ‘un. It seemed almost like a miniature tarantula, and after doing a little research later, I discovered that the trapdoor spider is a reasonably close relative of the tarantula. Both types of spiders are classified in a category known as mygalomorphs, which are spiders that have fangs that point downwards (paraxial fangs) rather than sideways like a pincer (diaxial). Most of the spiders you encounter on a regular basis have the sideways-oriented fangs and are classified as araneomorphs instead of mygalomorphs.
According to experts, trapdoor spiders are not a danger to humans, but like most spiders they will bite if they feel threatened. The bite is usually compared to a bee sting, so it’s probably best to just admire these 8-legged wonders without trying to handle them.
If you do get to see a trapdoor spider, consider it a treat since they tend to spend most of their time in their burrows, but they don’t hang out there just because it’s a great place to wait for a meal delivery service. The burrow is also the best place for trapdoor spiders to hide from one of their main predators, wasps in the Pompilidae family, also known as spider wasps.
These wasps will hunt a trapdoor spider (and others) down, then sting the spider, paralyzing it, before stuffing the spider in a hole, sometimes even the trapdoor spider’s own burrow. The fun doesn’t stop there though, because the wasp will then lay an egg inside the paralyzed spider which will eventually hatch and feed on the poor arachnid. Some spider wasps even go knocking on the trapdoor spider’s door, ready to place their order in a drive-thru that is always serving up something tasty, on one side of the window or the other.
Trapdoor spiders and spider wasps are just two more amazing creatures you’ll have a chance to see when you head OutsideSC!
