How many spiders eaten during sleep

See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism. Mobile Newsletter banner close.

Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Wild Animals. Spiders are creepy and crawling, but their choice of residence isn't necessarily your mouth -- especially while you're sleeping. You absolutely can eat spiders. Specifically, in Cambodia people eat a fried Asian tarantula called ah pieng. It's said to taste a bit like fried prawns. What country eats spiders? That would be over 20, average spiders, for a lifetime of 5, years at the 4 per year rate.

For a sleeping person to swallow even one live spider would involve so many highly unlikely circumstances that for practical purposes we can rule out the possibility. No such case is on formal record anywhere in scientific or medical literature. Millions of people have some time or other watched another person sleep; so why don't we have one eyewitness account of a spider trying to enter the sleeper's mouth?

Since this page first appeared, I have heard from one person who found a small harmless spider hiding in her ear which is possible , two who claimed to have had one in their noses but had no evidence that it wasn't already in the hanky , and a few who stated that years ago, when they were young children, they spat out or brushed from their mouths an object they interpreted while still groggy with sleep as a spider or spider leg. Those stories are so similar they may qualify as a distinct urban legend.

Of course nobody ever preserved the evidence, and I remain unconvinced that a spider would visit a huge breathing monster and enter its mouth. In , news stories recounted a doctor's finding two spiders in a boy's ear. Spiders might end up the same way but not necessarily eaten-up. Nick P, Cebu City, Philippines Many insects fly into your mouth or nostrils while you are quite awake and before you know it, they are on their way into your stomach. Thank God for the consolation I have in the words of Jesus Christ that "if they believers drink or eat, in the case of spiders any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them".

Mark I am a believer. Ronke Akeni, Lagos, Nigeria No, I don't think that spiders crawl onto people's faces while they are sleeping because the person would feel it and wake up right away. Even if this were true you wouldn't know anyway so what's the big deal?

It's not as gross as what's found in hotdogs or Jello. Ellie Asaga, Harbour Town, USA I don't know how John from Bethlehem see above has ended up with so many bugs on his face, but maybe he should think about cleaning his house. Macawayne, Glasgow, Scotland Last night a great big spider crawled onto my face twice around my mouth. My cat who loves to eat spiders was jumping about all over me.

Definatly the spider was trying to get into my mouth - or else why would it return a second time? I hate spiders. I dont know what to think anymore. Here in Iraqi Kurdistan's Erbil province we have spiders so large that it is not uncommon in the summer months to find our small children completely cocconed up and dangling from the rafters in the morning.

Hence the ancient name of Erbil city - "Hawler. I think they might have been gnats. I snore, mouth wide open.

Surely we'd feel them and wake up? Shane, Basingstoke UK I found half a spider by my pillow today, and I once woke up choking on something. Louise, Rickmansworth England While I have never knowingly swallowed a spider, a wasp did crawl into my ear canal while I was asleep.

It died and was encased in earwax--no joke. So, I figure that, if that could happen, I could easily have eaten several spiders while sleeping. Its true. The good news is that spiders are too smart to crawl into your mouth and get eaten. I live in Amherst Massachusetts right next to a large barn. Over the years I've gotten used to them. They're everywhere over here. I rarely DONT see one. Theres so many that I always see the smaller ones get eaten by the bigger ones.

At night they sometimes crawl on my body but I don't care anymore. Few are poisonous, although I have been bitten by a brown recluse spider before. Here's why you wouldn't eat them in your sleep: 1. Have you ever breathed at a spider? If you're as much as 1 foot away, and you so much as exhale slightly in the spider's direction, it will run like hell as far away from you as it can and hide. For this reason spiders wouldn't get close to your breathing mouth when you sleep.

Spiders are smart. No really, I live with them. They have millions of years of evolution under their belts. Would they be thinking: "Oh, look, a very large mammal. Let's crawl into it's mouth. If spiders crawled into mouths, I would have known by now. I would have breathed one in and choked on one eventually. I've choked on other things like moths and gnats, but never spiders. Roman, Amherst MA I sleep with my mouth wide open. These two lips spread wide in the hopes that grandfather anansi will crawl in and weave his web of words like wonder upon a tongue coated by quicksilver.

I dream of coyote chasing brer rabbit and fox skips through my closed eyelids I'm a sleep therapist and study peoples sleep behaviour at their homes, with a video camera. On many occasions, I have seen small spiders crawl into peoples mouths while they are asleep. Sometimes the spiders crawl out, but the majority of times, the patient closes their mouth and the spider is never seen again. Seeing is believing!

I woke up when a spider was crawling in my mouth. It was huge. I have taped my mouth shut every night since that happened. Almost died once. Mariah, Blairstown, USA Ahh well two nights ago, my window was slightly open and when i woke up my ear really hurt and i felt around and on my ear lobe inside it i felt a huge ball, like when you pierce your ears.. Miki, Omaha USA I've consulted with a couple of doctors about this before on account of my arachnophobia and they said spiders are swallowed on average each year!

Hopefully it wont turn out to b lethal! Matthew Bowser , Dorchestor USA What I believe the true story is that when spiders decompose they turn into dust which eventually gets put into the air. Then, when you are asleep, when you inhale, the particles of the spider are "eaten" which in your lifetime eventually adds up to 4 spiders.

I instinctively brushed it away. A few minutes later, I felt something on my face, near my left eye. I though it was just my imagination, but the I remembered seeing a spider on the wall earlier tonight. Half awake, I reached up and grabbed the object on my face, and threw it towards the floor.

I reached over, got my super-bright LED flashlight, and looked around. On the edge of the blanket, near my stomach, was the spider. I recognized its markings, as the same one on the wall earlier. It was a wolf spider, which is a common spider in my area. I thumped the spider to the floor, and smashed it with my shoe. By this point, I was fully awake, and had the "willies". I thought I would do a quick google search to see if this is a common occurance.

I guess it is! I don't know why it crawled onto my face, but it is rather cool tonight. Maybe it was looking for someplace warm, and my face happened to be it. Regardless, it freaked me out. Maybe I could purchase a face mask Sleepless in FL!!!! Maaany tonnes of these creepy crawlie bugs duuuude they're waay trippy maaaan.

Sometimes I think it's gods way of stickin' it to the man, man! Roy Bottomley, Corazon de Oro Portugal This is legitimate: I conducted an experiment in the early s on my five year old daughter. My conclusion was that approximately one spider is swallowed during sleep each week. Doctor J. Hestler, Jerusalem, Israel Dying by choking on a spider would be a dumb way to die.

If spiders are prevalent where you are the odds would increase that you would eat spiders. Most insects are not harmful to eat and are a good source of protein. We digest them in our lives through processed foods and worse than spiders make their way into the mix.

We are more apt to swallow spiders and other insects while we are awake though than while sleeping as we are on the move and not dependent on them to come to us.

It is nothing to worry about in most cases. Since during some nights I wake up out of nowhere, and happen to find a baby spider dangling on it's web, hanging from my ceiling, near my FACE.