How Much Do Spiders Eat a Day?
WouterSpiders are opportunistic eaters. They will eat just about anything they can find in their webs. Their diet includes insects, small vertebrates, frogs, and snakes.
Most spiders eat insects and other bugs. However, there are some larger species that have been known to eat small mammals and birds. The majority of spiders consume between 400 and 800 million tons of insects annually.
In a study published in the Springer journal Science of Nature, researchers estimated how much spiders eat each year. They used two different methods to estimate the arachnids food needs.
First, researchers counted the number of insects found in the field. Then they extrapolated this data and came up with an estimate of 435-887 million U.S. tons.
Scientists also looked at how large spiders are. They found that medium-sized spiders can eat up to 1-3 mosquitoes per day. This is more than enough to sustain the adult spiders.
The larger spiders can survive weeks without food. Tarantulas and Black Widows can go up to 30 days.
In addition to consuming a variety of bugs, spiders also drink water. Their need for moisture is not as great as the need for water in human beings.
It is believed that spiders eat about 10 percent of their body weight in food each day. Spiders eat all sorts of animals, from roaches to bats. Researchers have estimated that there are about 45,000 different spider species on Earth.
The amount of food that spiders consume each year is far more than the food that humans eat. Humans, for instance, eat around 400 million tons of meat and fish each year.
