Hi. I’ve put together an article that answers the question, what can spiders bite through?! After researching this topic, I found a few surprising answers! But if your in a rush and just want the cliff notes I’ve put together a table surmising the answers.
| Material | Can spiders bite through it? |
| Plastic | Yes (thin plastics) |
| Wood | No |
| Clothes | Yes |
| Socks | Yes |
| Jeans | Sorta |
| Rubber Gloves | Yes |
| Boots | In specific cases |
| Neoprene | No |
| Dresses | Yes |
Still curious? Keep reading if you want some surprising answers to what can spiders can bite through!
Can Spiders bite Through Plastic?
First, it should be established that spiders do not exactly have teeth so much as they are equipped with sharp fangs that they use to immobilize prey and after that they use digestive juices (as well as venom if they are venomous) to begin liquefying their prey to then eat them as a liquid-lunch of sorts!
With this in mind, spiders can at times utilize their fangs to try and pick-away at something such as plastic–for example if they are caught in a plastic Ziploc bag or a bottle. A spider that knows it is trapped can use its fangs and enzymes in an effort to wear-down its enclosure and try to escape. These enzymes can be powerful but do have their limits.
While a spider may be able to break-through a Ziploc bag with some thin plastic or a piece of saran wrap with enough time to work its fangs on it, a thick plastic bottle or big plastic terrarium will most likely not be something a spider can chew through with its fangs and enzymes. Therefore, if you have a little terrarium you are keeping your spider in to show-off to friends and family you can rest assured it will not be escaping anytime soon–as long as you keep the door closed, that is!
If you enjoy reading this article, why not check out our articles on What Can Spiders Die From? The Curious Answer and How Fast Do Roaches Spread? Short Answer FAST!
Can Spiders bite Through Wood?
Spiders have not generally ever been observed to try and chew on wood or otherwise eat it. Spiders, in fact, are often found on lists as being extremely helpful in houses for taking-care of insects that can threaten the wood in your house by being a hungry arachnid who makes a stellar predator of wood-harming carpenter ants, termites, or other animals that can negatively impact the wood within a house.
While spiders can be scary to see making a web in a shed or attic these out-of-the-way places where you may not notice insects wearing-down your wood are in fact stellar places to have spiders because while they don’t chew through wood, they will eat all the insects who do (or whose nesting harms wood, like carpenter ants) and help keep your house protected from those nuisances! Rest assured, therefore, your wood is not only safe from spiders, but they’ll be working to help protect it!
You know who really loves to chew through wood… carpenter ants! Read more about it here: What Can Ants Damage?
Can Spiders Bite Through Clothes?
If you are wearing a shirt or other kinds of clothing and a spider lands upon you then you might start to feel a bit nervous and worry it might try to bite you through your clothes. However, you don’t need to panic as most spiders have fangs that are too short and thin to penetrate through the majority of clothing.
Now, if you are wearing a very thin kind of fabric a spider might be able to bite through it, but generally they do not want to bite unless they are scared or panicking. A lot of the times when a spider bites someone wearing clothes the spider has become trapped between the fabric and the person’s bare skin.
For example, if a spider accidentally crawls-through a sleeve or collar and then cannot figure out how to escape it might get upset and bite your arm, neck, chest, etc. Sometimes people may not realize a spider has become trapped inside their clothes so they think a spider bit them through their clothing while in actuality the spider was already underneath their clothes. Therefore, if a spider lands on your clothing you do not need to freak-out by any means, just gently brush it off.
Spiders are fascinating creatures! Oftentimes people will call them insects, but this actually is incorrect–they are arachnids! Arachnids have eight legs and insects only have six (they also do not have an antenna. You know what other creature is an arachnid? This one may surprise you… read this article to find out: What Are Scorpions? The Complete Answer
Can Spiders Bite Through Socks?
Another common misconception about spiders is that they bite through socks. There are many stories of people who put on their shoes only to suddenly find themselves bit by a spider they assume must have been within their shoe and which then bit them through their sock.
As was discussed, however, spiders generally have small and thin fangs so the majority of socks would be too thick for them to effectively bite-through besides some of the thinnest dress-socks, possibly.
This is again most likely a situation where someone may already have a spider in the sock itself and when they put the sock on they do not notice the spider–however, once they put their foot in their shoe the spider may start to panic as it feels the pressure of the sock being pressed into it due to the shoe squeezing around the sock, and at this point the spider bites because it is scared.
Simply being sure to check your socks for any kind of unwanted intruders before putting them on can help you avoid ants, spiders, or any other creepy-crawlies getting into your socks and possibly causing your trouble!
Can Spiders Bite Through Jeans?
Jeans, in general, are a very thick fabric, and this makes them something that spiders simply can’t bite through. However, it should be noted jeans often can have rips and tears which could be quite easy for a spider to crawl through. If you have jeans with a good deal of little holes, rips, or small tears those might look like an appealing place for a spider to try and crawl-in and get cozy.
The problem, of course, is that when you put your jeans on the spider might get upset and think it is in danger from its temporary home suddenly compressing and moving around. Hence, if the spider crawls into the jeans further and ends-up trapped between your skin and your jeans, it will most likely bite out of fear.
Can Spiders Bite Through Rubber Gloves?
Very thin rubber gloves may be something spiders can bite through, but if you are wearing really thick kinds like what you would see in a medical setting you generally do not need to worry.
However, if you are handling spiders for any reason many people will tell you that is might actually be better to use something like thick cloth gloves, which a spider will think feels more like tree bark or vegetation. A pair of rubber gloves may feel weird to a spider and cause it to be anxious from the odd texture and weird sterile smell.
Therefore, if handling spiders you probably do not want to use rubber gloves, but rest assured most will repel a spider’s bite except for the biggest kinds of spiders with ticker fangs (like a tarantula, those would need some really thick rubber gloves and not thin ones).
Can Spiders Bite Through Boots?
As with the stories about spiders biting through socks discussed above that are misunderstandings about spiders, the same applies with boots. Oftentimes people walking in areas with spiders (like a forest) will be scared the spiders crawling on the ground will try to climb up on their boots and bite through them.
This simply is not the case! Generally, people wearing boots who get bitten by spiders already had the spiders within their boots before they even put them on, and once they had the boots on and started walking that made the spider panic and bite them from within the boot. One way to prevent this from happening is to make sure to always check your boots thoroughly in all their nooks and crannies that might be appealing to a spider to hide-in so that you can be 100% sure that while your boots were sitting-out no spiders tried to go inside and make the boot their home.
Making sure you take this precaution will help you to know that there are no spiders in your boots and you will not be bitten upon putting your feet inside. As long as the insides of your boots are spider-free you do not ever need to worry about them biting-through your boots from the outside as boots are (generally) very thick and a spider’s fangs will be unable to penetrate them to any significant degree.
Can Spiders Bite Through Neoprene?
Due to the fact that most spiders are unable to bit through all the but thinnest rubber gloves it therefore also stands to reason that neoprene, a synthetic rubber used in a wide variety of ways, should be all-but-impossible for a spider to bite through.
Just as spiders have no interest in trying to eat or bite-on wood, they generally should have zero interest in neoprene, perhaps using any holes or gaps within a house utilizing it to make a web but they will not pose any threat to the Neoprene itself and will not try to bite through it or otherwise cause it any damage.
Can Spiders Bite Through Pants and Dresses?
More dress-style pants and dresses as well sometimes are made out of thinner materials, but even these thin materials will generally not be something spiders can bite through except for some of the largest species with massive fangs like a tarantula.
As has been established, the main issue is simply that when spiders are crawling upon our clothing if they end-up going inside a hole and becoming trapped against our skin they might panic and bite in the hope it will help them escape. This would for sure apply with something like a frilly dress whereupon a spider might become lost in all the folds of a dress and if it eventually reaches human skin start biting in the hopes that will help it escape. Again, however, a spider outside pants or dresses should not be able to bite through them by any means.
Do spiders bite unprovoked?
You can spiders on every single continent in the World besides Antarctica and many species exist. Sometimes people are scared of spiders and this is called, “Arachnophobia.” One reason people are sometimes nervous around spiders is they are afraid the arachnids might bite them! This article aims to address this concern by talking about the kinds of things spiders can and cannot chew or bite through so that you can bust the myths about spiders and know the truths!
Conclusion
We have learned from this article some interesting facts about spiders as well as what they can chew or bite through and what they are not able to use their fangs upon. It has become apparent that they are many myths about spiders having fangs that somehow can break-through all kinds of thick fabrics or materials when in reality it is more of a case that spiders might crawl into our clothes without us realizing it, and then when they become afraid they will try and bite us.
A spider that simply lands on our clothing or which we are handling with gloves almost never will bite a human for no reason, and spiders want to use their fangs and digestive enzymes to eat–but if they think they are trapped, they will bite in the hopes that get them out of whatever situation they are in! However, as long as someone makes sure to take the proper precautions when it comes to spiders they are not something to be scared of encountering.
Before you put on clothes, especially if you are in a region with lots of insects and arachnids crawling about, make sure to check them for spiders or any other bugs to be aware of–by knowing that you will not be trapping a spider you can rest assured you’ll be safe from the bite of a confused or scared arachnid. Also, if you are handling a spider or keeping it contained to make sure to have a thick material to prevent its fangs or digestive enzymes from wearing any material down and biting you or resulting in the spider escaping.
As long as we treat spiders with respect and are careful not to disturb them they can be immensely helpful in combating other pests thanks to being predators of annoying nuisances such as carpenter ants and termites. Spiders are great in so many ways, we just need to make sure to be aware of them!
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not check out our articles on Which Spiders are Poisonous in Certain States? (And Canda) and Do All Cockroaches Fly? Let’s Find Out
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