- [Man] You know, there's a lot of
dubious information on the internet.
But one alleged figure I see resurfacing all the time
is that one that's like, "Oh, real scientists released
"an official lab study that every human swallows
"eight spiders in their sleep every year."
But every time I hear that stat, I can't help but think
"That's baloney."
So I decided to get to the bottom of it.
Hold my calls.
(dramatic music)
I enlisted the help of a woman named
Diana Terranova, a professional spider handler.
- I want to try to put some spiders on this bed
and see if they will go into my mouth.
The spider woman was very friendly
and I did not like it.
- I will put spiders on any part of your body
that you want to have them put on.
- Let's just stick with this for now.
Like I said, I think that's plenty.
After some idle chitchat Diana got down to the sexy business
of placing spiders directly onto my face.
- Most people have backyards, and orb spiders,
especially in the fall, come in from your backyard.
- So this could hap
- pen to you.
- Oh! Keep him out!
- See, he's making a web.
Oh, swing swing, swing!
A spider would go into your mouth if they thought
it was a safe place to hide out, right?
- Uh-huh.
For the purposes of this experiment,
I tried to keep my mouth open and inviting,
like a cozy shelter of flesh.
Oh!
- What repels a spider?
Vibrations, breath, heartbeat, talking,
anything that resonates at any hertz,
especially the lower hertz, sound very scary to a spider
and make it think of a predator.
- Oh! Just right in my eye!
OK, that's fine.
These are just friendly creatures,
and boy are they a lot of fun.
Having just put a spider on my face,
the spider woman decided that the next step
would be to put a different spider on my face.
- Shane, do any of your friends
live in their parents' basements?
- I mean, probably.
- So maybe one of your friends has had a cellar spider
or two walk on their face at night.
- OK, all right.
- Go in Shane's mouth.
See, he' s on your mouth, but he still won't go in.
- Sometimes the spider woman
told me to do things that I did not like.
- Here, stick your tongue out even.
- What?
But I did them in the name of science.
- Literally, it won't stay.
(gagging)
It's on the edge, but it just won't go in.
- Okay.
- Won't go in.
- Huh-uh.
The spider woman continued to put spiders on my face.
- Let's even test the theory that spiders of different ages
may crawl into your mouth.
Here we have a baby Rose Hair Tarantula.
- This one's actually kinda cute.
- Did you know that your skin is almost the same tone
as a baby Rose Hair Tarantula?
- Is that a compliment?
Heading into this experiment, I considered myself
relatively unfazed by spiders,
but I had failed to consider the whole
on-the-face aspect of this scenario,
and so I began to sweat.
- So even as a baby, a spider or tarantula
has a fully developed awareness to stay away
from a person's mouth, because your mouth
feels like a large predator to them.
- At this juncture, I felt as though
the point had been made.
But the spider woman was tenacious.
- But, you want to hear the funniest thing
about boy tarantulas and if they went on your face?
- What?
- Is that when boy tarantulas come in your home,
when they're in search of a mate,
- Uh-huh?
- They take the sperm from their abdomen
and they put in on their front pedipalps
so that it's like ready to go.
So when a spider, a boy spider, walks on your face,
- Uh huh?
- He's walking on your face with like his sperm
like all over your face.
- Okay.
- I'll even blow the spider in the direction of your mouth,
and let's see if she'll even go there.
- Oh, great!
I began to suspect that the spider woman
was sort of into this.
- See, she just won't go in as well.
- The spider woman had so many spiders.
- It's an Olios spider.
It's the largest of the Huntsmen.
God, they all love Shane's nose.
- I have a great nose.
- Um-hmm.
- It's not biting me, I'm noticing.
- It's not biting because I am not a threat to the spider
nor or you, plus you're not prey.
So they have no reason to bite us.
Oh! Oh, he did the mouth.
Even a Huntsman won't wait in your mouth.
- Look at that, easy peasy
- It's like Christmas!
It's like Santa with eight legs.
- That's not what this is like at all.
- Yes it is.
- Okay
And so after repeated trials, it had been
proven that spiders did not care
to seek comfort in my gaping maw.
- But remember everybody, please, please,
you shouldn't try this at home.
- No one's gonna try this at home.
- Well, you would try it at home.
- I am not going to try this at home.
- He'll totally try this at home.
- No one will ever--
- Because everybody wants to be like you, Shane.
- Please stop putting spiders on my face.
- [Diana] I lost it.
- [Shane] You don't know where it went?
- [Diana] No.
Oh, he went in your shirt!
- [Shane] Oh, did he?
- [Diana] Yeah.
- [Shane] OK, you need get him outta there!