Spiders And Their Webs

[SickThings]

Sitting in the bath recently, I watched a spider descend from the ceiling for a distance of well over 3 feet - presumably producing it's thread of web as it came. It then decided to climb swiftly back up the web to the ceiling again.

My question is, what happened to the thread of web it came down on? I checked if it was still hanging there, looped double like a human climber's rope would be, but it wasn't.

Did the spider roll it up and store it somehere on it's body? Did it eat the thread? Did it cut it free and let it fall?

Any spider experts out there?

[Clanad]

No spider expert here, but spiders do eat their surplus or unused web material since it's made of a protein and is reusable once digested and expelled through one of seven glands, each used for different web material production... Interesting question... thanks!

[R1Geezer]

Watch them closely they go up head first eating the web, they come down head first trailing the new web. Remarkable creatures.

[LoftyLottie]

This made me laugh. Imagining you in the bath and a spider coming down, seeing you and rapidly climbing back up again!! If it were me I would have jumped rapidly out of the bath!!

[wildwood]

As a side interest..... I read somewhere that a spider's thread is the stronger than any man made material of the same diameter.

[SickThings]

I had heard that spiders eat their webs, but that spider climbed up pretty quickly!