Spiders can sail now, which is terrifying

Today in your nightmares: Scientists have just discovered that you’ll never be safe from spiders, even at sea.

Spiders can sail. Well, at least some of them can — according to researchers at the University of Nottingham. 

Scientists observed 325 adult spiders from 21 different species by placing them in trays of water and using pumps to simulate wind.

Because of their water-repellent legs, all of the spiders were able to stand on the water. And 201 of them, which covers most common species, are also sailors. The spiders catch the wind by doing a handstand, stretching their legs and abdomen up in the air. Some simply extend their front legs straight up.

In fact, weight is likely the most limiting factor, according to Sara Goodacre, who worked on the study.

The spiders also use their silk as an anchor or a dragline to hook onto floating objects and use them as a raft on their way to shore. Once attached to an object, the report reads, the spiders walk along the silk until they reach safety.

This study adds on to the knowledge that spiders are able to fly using a technique called “ballooning.”

“Even [Charles] Darwin took note of flying spiders that kept dropping on the [HMS] Beagle miles away from the seashore,” Morito Hayashi, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “But given that spiders are terrestrial, and that they do not have control over where they will travel when ballooning, how could evolution allow such risky behavior to be maintained?”

Scientists have used ballooning to explain how spiders have traveled hundreds of miles over open ocean in the past, but spiders have no control over their direction or speed while in the air. Sailing spiders don’t lose that control, even when traveling over rough seas.

While this may seem like bad news for every arachnophobe, researchers say this is only good news for farmers, who welcome spiders as a form of pest control.