Book 4, Question 28
Why Do Spiders Spin Webs?
A web is a hunting net and a home alarm. Spider silk is liquid protein that hardens in air into a thread that is very strong for its size. Let's watch a spider build one!
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 4
More fun facts
- Spider silk is a natural fiber made of protein, produced by body parts called spinnerets.
- Silk is strong because of linked protein chains, and stretchy because of loose areas in between.
- Some spiders can make more than one kind of silk.
- Spiders sometimes eat their old webs to reuse the silk.
- Silk is not only for webs. Spiders also use it to protect their eggs and build nursery webs for their babies.
- Ogre-faced spiders catch prey with a silk net held in their legs, and some spiders use their web like a slingshot.
Sources: Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic
Questions kids ask
Why don't spiders run out of silk?
Their bodies keep making it, and some spiders even eat old webs to recycle the silk.