# Myth busted: We don’t swallow eight spiders a year while we sleep
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 17, 2014, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318 "2014-04-17T04:59:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/21 "2015-02-22T23:58:48Z")
Before I got treated for sleep apnea, I used to sleep with my mouth wide open. More than once, I woke up with a tickling sensation coming from inside my mouth like something was walking around in there mainly because there was. You don’t know how you are going to react until you have been in that situation but I found out my personal strategy for a very groggy 3am at least. I turn myself into a human Venus flytrap by not breathing, sitting very still and then closing my mouth really fast. SNAP! That usually works to trap the hapless victim inside but a few are too fast for the first attempt but they always come back.
The next step is to dispatch the unwelcome intruder by crushing it with your tongue against the roof of your mouth and then spit launch it as far across the room as possible. The most common of those executed in this manner were common houseflies but I did catch a spider and even a small grasshopper 😕 once that way.
I have no idea how many never woke me up at all and just got swallowed without any fanfare or elaborate execution ceremonies but it is very possible that there were many.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/22 "2015-02-23T00:10:14Z")
Every big rock I’ve ever climbed around on, if there’s a hole in the rock, there’ll be spiders in there.
Just saying’.
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### Author:  [@mind\_the\_gap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mind_the_gap)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/23 "2015-02-23T06:35:57Z")
We don’t TRY to swallow the ones around here, but if you step on them, they bark loudly.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/24 "2015-02-23T16:17:27Z")
> [@mind\_the\_gap](#):
>
> We don’t TRY to swallow the ones around here, but if you step on them, they bark loudly.
I am living proof that their bark is worse than their bite!
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/25 "2015-02-23T16:35:05Z")
Vindicated!
I _knew_ it was nine!!
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/26 "2015-02-23T16:40:13Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_York](#):
>
> I do remember walking across a field when I was a kid and a small white moth flew into my mouth.
The moth man properties?
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/27 "2015-02-23T17:21:49Z")
> [@Finagle](#):
>
> So if you relax the definition of spider to include dust mites (also an arachnid, I believe), does that change the numbers any? Those little microscopic dudes are everywhere, so you have to figure that if you smoosh your face against the pillow and then lick your lips, you’re probably going to end up with some very small amount of dust mite contributing to your daily protein intake.
Bad news for vegans. :eek:
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### Author:  [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/28 "2015-02-23T19:02:49Z")
I do not bother spiders in their natural outside habitat. I would only request that they offer me the same courtesy as regards my natural inside habitat. Any spider that enters my domicile has indicated a wish to end its life. It would be churlish of me not to accommodate it.
If that means eating them in my sleep, so be it, I’ll take that bullet for my fellow man.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/29 "2015-02-23T19:21:46Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#):
>
> When I was young I once woke up to a little tickle on my forehead, reached up and grabbed one of these callobius spiders and threw it across the room. It was about the size of a US quarter. Took awhile to get back to sleep.
>
> [http://www.towardsfreedom.com/photography/yard/DSC06098.jpg](http://www.towardsfreedom.com/photography/yard/DSC06098.jpg)
Screw you and everybody that looks like you, man! THAT is the very species that ignited my arachnophobia–can hardly bear to look at a photo of them.
Crawled into bed one night when I was a kid. Felt an irregularity in the bottom sheet that felt a little like a tough lint ball (part of my suconscious was screaming already), reached down to casually flick it away from my thigh (subconscious was hysterical–IT’S A SPIDEY!!) and it squirmed under my hand. I levitated out of bed and floated over to the light switch. I slowly walked over to the bed (subconscious was trying to convince me we should head downstairs and get some ice cream) and turned down the covers. I did not see a callobius there in my bed. I saw two. And neither looked particularly the worse for wear having been rolled up under my thigh and hand. I murdered them both and slept in the tub.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/30 "2015-02-23T19:57:27Z")
> [@racepug](#):
>
> I don’t believe I ever have, either, but my wife swears by a story from her time pre-racepug when she was lying in bed in her apartment/condo near nightfall and \*\*noticed a spider on the ceiling. After she turned the light off \*\*she swears that the spider maneuvered itself into position and then dropped right on her face, completely freaking her out.
Bolding mine! But I don’t
You mean she
So first she saw
I’m saying she _had to know that was going to happen!_
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#):
>
> I murdered them both and slept in the tub.
Now you, sir, sound like a well-adjusted and right-thinking individual.
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### Author:  [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-busted-we-don-t-swallow-eight-spiders-a-year-while-we-sleep/686318/31 "2015-02-24T02:35:46Z")
While getting ready to turn in one night several years ago, I pulled back the comforter, and the biggest spider I’ve ever seen was quite at home on my sheet. I collected it into a cup with a Tvguide as a cover, and deposited it safely outside. Then I went to bed. I refuse to kill anything just because it was unfortunate enough to wander into the house. I’m the only person in my family not terrified of spiders. Snakes on the other hand, oh my, I cannot even look at a picture of a snake. ::shudder::
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