- What I'm gonna do now,
is let it walk on my hands and my arm.
- What? - Are you ready for this?
- [Coyote] Yeah.
- [Mark] You're gonna let that thing walk on you?
- This is to prove,
oh my gosh, I just saw its fangs.
His fangs are huge.
(tribal beat music)
No matter how brave you may be,
I'm willing to bet that there is something
you are afraid of.
(dramatic music)
Fears or phobias, as they are known
in the medical sciences community,
come in many shapes and sizes.
When it comes to the fear of spiders,
properly known as arachnophobia,
I think it's safe to say that this fear,
also come with many legs.
- [Mark] What are you looking at?
- Look at this.
That's a Golden Silk Orbweaver.
Look at the size of that spider.
That's a female, for sure, the males are smaller.
Whoa, there's more over here.
The whole side of this house is covered in them.
Look at this.
Wow, look at them.
Look, they're all running.
Ooh, look at this one right here.
Try to not startle it.
Whoa.
- [Mark] Oh.
- That right there, is a big spider.
Oh boy.
You know it might be interesting,
why don't we do an episode like we did with the black widow,
where I free-handle one of these spiders,
to find out if it bites or not.
What do you think?
- [Mark] Aw man, they're definitely very impressive looking,
look at that.
- Yeah, a lot bigger than the black widow,
that's for sure.
I have handled many species of spiders.
And whether they are huge and hairy,
like the desert tarantula,
or sleek and toxic, like the black widow,
it never fails to send shivers down my spine,
as they skitter along my arms.
(eerie suspenseful music)
Oh my.
Going right onto the edge of my finger.
Okay, now she's coming down my arm.
She's actually spun a little thread of web,
like she's becoming secured to me.
Oh I thought she was about to bite.
One of my underlying goals,
has always been to help people face their fear of spiders.
So today, I will be handing one of the most common,
yet scariest looking arachnids in Central America,
the Golden Orbweaver.
But first, I have to catch one.
Wow, that is a massive web.
Look at the anchor points down here
that then run all the way up, into the hot zone.
This spider's got a good cache of food
already stored up,
but given the fact that there are not too many
guard strands on the outside here,
I think I might be able to actually catch this one.
Alright should we go for it?
- [Mark] Let's do it.
- Let me see if I can get her to come right down.
- [Mark] You know it's a her?
- [Coyote] Definitely a her.
Ahhh, I'm losing it.
Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.
- [Mark] Nice.
- There we go.
Whoa, that is a big spider right there.
And I bet anybody watching right now
who has arachnophobia is thinking to themselves,
Coyote you are absolutely crazy.
Okay, let's bring it out here,
from under the overhand.
There we go.
It's staying completely still on the stick,
look at that.
Arachnid, wow, one impressive specimen.
Whoa, okay, going up to the top of the stick,
look at those hooked legs.
That will make your skin crawl.
Okay Mark, give me that little plastic cube.
Real slowly before it drops down on me.
Got it, got it, got it, got it.
I'm gonna see if I can get her to slowly walk in there.
Okay.
There you go.
- [Mark] Whoa.
- Got it.
Wow.
That is one intimidating arachnid right there.
Alright, let's get this spider into a controlled situation
and see, just how dangerous it really is.
(dramatic music)
Warning, spider bites can be incredibly dangerous
and potentially fatal.
Never attempt to catch or handle a spider.
Alright, now I am going to keep my spider stick with me
just in case I need to balance the animal
on it at some point.
Oh boy, you see it up in its web
and you're like, oh it's not that big.
Until you get it inside of a clear plastic cube
and it's right next to your face,
it looks a lot bigger, up close and personal.
Alright, I'm going to take off my pack
so I have a little more mobility.
Now like Arizona's black widow,
this spider is oftentimes found in residential areas
and they build their webs all over man-made structures.
So it's a species that you oftentimes stumble upon.
However, because they're web builders,
they stick to their webs.
Now people do encounter them,
because if you're out there in the rainforest,
they oftentimes will span their webs between two trees.
And like in one of those famous adventure movies,
if you're walking through the rainforest at night,
whap, you may walk straight into a web
and find this spider on your person.
Now these spiders are armed
with a neurotoxic venom which will attack
the nervous system of the prey.
And what these spiders are out here feasting on,
is any sort of insect that's unfortunate enough
to fly into their webs.
However, some of these spiders to grow large enough
where they actually take lizards,
and I've seen pictures on the internet,
of ones that have eaten small birds
and bats, how crazy is that?
Now those are the ones in Australia.
The ones here in Central and South America
don't grow quite as big.
And there are actually 23 recognized species worldwide.
This is actually a spider that people
often see in Florida and they show up in bananas.
Did you know that?
They're actually also known as the banana spider.
- [Mark] Oh.
- They've been transported into the United States
through shipments of fruit.
Now unlike the wandering spider,
this is not a nomadic hunter.
It's waiting for its prey to come to its web.
Now let's say a fly or a beetle gets trapped
in that sticky spider silk.
What they will do is rush forward
and inflict a bite.
That initial hit from those fangs
sends the pry into shock,
and as the neurotoxic venom is beginning to shut down
that victim's system,
what the spider will do,
is crawl back and just watch its prey struggle.
The more it struggles,
the more it becomes entangled in the web.
And once it succumbs to the venom,
what they'll do is come in, and spin a web around the victim
and then store it there.
Now based on the variety of orbweaver,
they have a different potency of venom.
The one that's here in Central and South America,
while I don't believe can kill you,
is extremely painful.
A bite from this spider
will cause your arm to swell up,
it'll be really bad, you'll have dry mouth,
cramping in your stomach
and it's gonna be a really really rough afternoon,
if I end up getting tagged by this creature.
Now here's where it gets a little tricky guys.
Like the black widow, this spider is capable
of giving me a pretty painful bite.
But to prove that this spider is not just out to bite you,
what I'm gonna do now,
is let it walk on my hands and my arm.
- What? - Are you ready for this?
- Yeah.
- [Mark] You're gonna let that thing walk on you.
- This is to prove, oh my gosh,
I just saw its fangs, his fangs are huge.
Okay, maybe I am having second thoughts about this.
Oh boy here we go.
(suspenseful music)
Alright, what I want to do
is actually use my spider stick.
And let the spider get onto the stick first
so that it feels a little more comfortable.
There we go.
That's a big spider.
Now you know what I'm gonna have to deal with
is the webbing, just like I did the black widow.
Can you see that?
And the tensile strength of this web
is so much stronger, than that of the black widow,
so I hope that I'm not tangled up too bad.
Okay here we go.
I'm gonna start by letting it crawl onto this hand.
Oh boy, oh boy.
Let me spin it for you like that.
Wow, it is beautiful, that's for sure.
Alright, it seems to be pretty calmed down at this point.
What I'm gonna do is put the stick sideways,
my mouth is getting dry, I'm getting nervous.
I'm gonna just place my hand out in front of the spider
and see if it will walk out onto my fingers.
Are you ready?
One
two
three.
(eerie suspenseful music)
Okay, the spider is on my arm.
Okay, going up my arm.
Okay, okay, oh boy, I'm losing control
of it, it's getting back here,
let me see if I can get it to go that way,
and around this way.
There we go.
It's got its legs up in the air,
let me see if I can keep it completely calm.
There you see my hand is shaking a little bit.
- [Mark] Is that a defensive position?
- It's a little bit of a defensive position
with the legs up in the air like that
and it's right on my knuckle.
Don't bite me, don't bite me, don't bite me.
Oh I can feel all the little hooks of its legs.
- [Mark] What are you feeling right now?
You feeling those nerves going?
- Extremely nervous, I'm trying to be super still.
Let the spider find a place where it feels comfortable.
And hopefully it will just, oh there we go oh.
Look at that, it wanted to go right back
onto the stick.
Look, you can actually see the webbing hanging
right from the tip of my finger.
Here, let me see if I can get it back on my hand.
(suspenseful music)
There we go.
She's really just interested in getting away.
Now remember, this spider does have a neurotoxic venom,
very similar to that of the black widow.
I want to just remain completely calm.
- [Mark] If you were bitten by this spider,
to be clear, it's a very bad situation.
- It could potentially be really bad
depending on how much venom went into my body.
Okay, oh man, the webbing is so much stronger
than that of the black widow.
Okay, where did she go?
- [Mark] On your elbow, up your back.
- Okay, it's coming this way,
I'm gonna slowly turn,
see if I can get her back onto my hand.
- [Mark] Yep yep there you go, got it.
- [Coyote] There we go.
What I don't want to do is make any sudden movement
or pull the webbing too tightly,
because if she feels threatened,
that is when she's going to bite.
Now the way that most spider bites end up happening
is somebody applies pressure to the arachnid
and they fear for their lives.
And a bite is oftentimes just a warning
that hey, I am here, don't squish me.
Now spiders can control the amount of venom
that they inject into what it is they're biting.
And because I am not a potential prey item,
if she were to bite me
ooh boy, right onto the tip of my finger there,
she's completely tangling me up.
If she were to bite me, it could possibly be a dry bite,
or I would basically keep my fingers crossed and pray,
that it was not a full on bite loaded with venom,
because that could be an incredibly bad situation.
There we go.
She feels real comfortable there.
Man, I am getting completely tangled up.
And I can feel how strong that spider silk is.
- [Mark] Coyote.
- Yeah yeah yeah.
- [Mark] Do you think you have good control
over the situation here?
- I don't think you ever have good control
when there's a spider just freely climbing
around on your body, where did she go?
(suspenseful music)
Okay.
Wow, I'm getting big time tangled up here guys.
Look at that, there's so much webbing,
she's able to just free climb right out on top of me there.
That gives me the opportunity
to get rid of some of that spider silk.
Whoa, just a moment to breath there,
where she's not actually on my hand.
- [Mark] Now tell us why you're doing this Coyote,
you have a reason for this.
- There's always a reason for this.
And the reason is that you should not just
automatically be afraid of these spiders.
Actually these arachnids are doing wonderful
things for the environment,
by eating a lot of pest insects.
Now if you're in Central or South America
and you see one of these outside of your house,
you don't need to be afraid of it.
These spiders stick to their webs,
and all they're doing is catching nuisance insects.
Now if you go into that web
and you tried to harass the spider,
obviously you may be bitten,
but the spider really has no interest
in actually biting me,
as long as I don't apply pressure to its body.
I'm getting a little more comfortable now,
but you always have to keep your guard up,
because you see how she's getting all tangled up
in her own webbing?
I don't want her to feel like
she's being pulled in any one direction
and then end up inflicting a bite.
This is a species that's only interested
in eating insects, not in biting humans.
- [Mark] Now you would never do this with something like
a wandering spider, correct?
- No, a wandering spider's venom is so incredibly potent
it could put me in the hospital.
A bite from a spider like this,
there is the chance that a lot of venom
could go into my body.
However, as a human, I am not prey for this species,
so the bite probably wouldn't be so bad
that I'd need to go to the hospital,
however it would swell up, it would turn red,
dry mouth, cramping in my stomach,
but after about 24 hours,
it would be nothing more than a red, itchy spot.
You know, my nerves calm quite a bit,
once the spider has found a spot
that it is comfortable, and not walking around.
You can see its mandibles and fangs
are well up off of my hand right now,
but if I were to startle her
or apply any pressure to the top of her body,
it would force her down,
and that's when a bite would be inflicted.
Again, I never recommend that you go out in the wild
and ever try to free-handle a spider on your own.
You never know how your body would react to the venom
if you were bitten.
Well guys, it looks like the sun
is starting to get a little low in the sky,
which means it's gonna be close
to hunting time for this arachnid,
because when the sun gets low,
that's when all the insects come out.
So what I want to do now,
whoa, she's going down my arm,
is safely get her, back up into her web
so that she can go out and hunt for the night.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave,
stay wild, we'll see you on the next adventure.
Alright, back up into the web with you.
Spiders can be found on almost every continent
and while they're all technically venomous,
they do their best to save that potent bite,
for their prey.
Unless threatened or provoked, as a human,
your odds of being bitten by a spider
like the Golden Orbweaver,
are slim to none.
So if you have the phobia of arachnids
running chills down your spine,
Try to tell yourself that spiders are a good thing.
Whether you believe it or not,
spiders are actually our friends.
If you thought handling the Golden Orbweaver
was chilling, make sure to go back and watch the episode
where I let the infamous black widow
crawl freely over my hands.
And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew,
on this season of Breaking Trail.
(coyote howling)