Wednesday, March 15th, 2017 by Brandon Runyon

Do you think you spend a lot of time on the web? Maybe a bit too much time on the web? Try being an orb weaver spider and you will spend your whole life on a web, building a web or finding a good place for a web. The silk a spider makes is extremely tough; it has the tensile strength as strong as high-grade steel. Their silk has many different uses such as prey capture and immobilization, reproduction and dispersal and some spiders will even eat their unused silk. These different silks used for different things are not just made by the same silk gland. Spiders have many different glands to make all the different silks they need in order to build its magnificent web. Spider silk has even been used to cover wounds to increase the healing and connect with the skin. Spider silk also has antiseptic properties and the silk is high in vitamin K. Besides medical uses, spider silk was also commonly used in crosshairs for optical instruments such a microscopes, rifle sights and telescopes.