# Spider Webs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440 "2001-09-08T21:08:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/1 "2001-09-08T21:08:23Z")
How do spiders lay new webs. It would seem to me that unless they have some amazing jumping power, how can they place webs that go across from one wall of a hallway to the other? ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/2 "2001-09-08T21:48:40Z")
As far as I know lots of spiders have a good jumping abilities, but often those ones don’t build webs. I always had the impression that they swing on a strand much like Tarzan. On a slightly divergent tangent, some research has gone into finding out whether various drugs effect a spider’s ability to build a web (suprise… they do) [http://www.bianca.com/shack/basement/web.html](http://www.bianca.com/shack/basement/web.html) ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/3 "2001-09-08T22:29:10Z")
Many spiders, particulary a variety referred to as balloon spiders, are adept at floating in the breeze. Balloon spiders are able to essentially parasail from one place to another, laying web as they go so they reach a landing point with a strand attached to their launch point. That strand is used as the top anchor of a web. There’s a fluid dynamics prof at Berkeley who has devoted a lot of research into figuring out how the spiders choose an optimum time to leap. His research is into some pretty deep fundamentals of turbulence, but that’s belied by all the bugs tied in wind tunnels in his lab. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/4 "2001-09-09T00:38:42Z")
There are a few methods; some that spring to mind are: • jumping • lifting tail, letting out a strand so the wind catches it • attaching a strand, zooming toward the ground, climbing back up, reeling the long strand in, and walking to wherever you want to anchor the line I’ve seen spiders do this last one once or twice. And once you have that initial strand, you have a “bridge” you can cross to attach the others. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/5 "2001-09-09T01:09:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by micco \* > \*\*Many spiders, particulary a variety referred to as balloon spiders, are adept at floating in the breeze. Balloon spiders are able to essentially parasail from one place to another, laying web as they go so they reach a landing point with a strand attached to their launch point. That strand is used as the top anchor of a web. > > There’s a fluid dynamics prof at Berkeley who has devoted a lot of research into figuring out how the spiders choose an optimum time to leap. His research is into some pretty deep fundamentals of turbulence, but that’s belied by all the bugs tied in wind tunnels in his lab. \*\* Did you _really_ want to use this word “belied”? If so, fine but it may not mean what you think it means and it’s better to find out now than in conversation with a peer. From the Random House Dictionary be-lie (bi lie’) v.t. \<-lied, -ly-ing\> 1. to show to be false; contradict: His trembling hands belied his calm voice. 2. to give a false impression of; misrepresent. 3. to be false to or disappoint: to belie one’s faith. ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spider-webs/80440/6 "2001-09-09T18:17:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > **Did you _really_ want to use this word “belied”?** Yep, I realized as soon as I hit submit that the vocab-police would nail me on that one. I know what it means. I used it incorrectly.