Is climate change making spiders more aggressive? A recent scientific study suggests so, as the researchers link aggressiveness to tropical cyclones, events that are expected to become more frequent and powerful with climate change. Unsurprisingly, the findings got considerable media coverage. After all, it matches justified fears of catastrophic climate change impacts, with the unjustified fear many people have of harmless spiders.
However, I have studied these arachnids for more than 15 years and I am not too concerned about tropical cyclones making them more aggressive. It is worth worrying about spiders themselves though.
People who dislike spiders will, of course, be alarmed by any news of them getting more aggressive or even bigger due to climate change. But beyond the headlines, it is important to note that they might be getting bigger for a number of reasons and that these are localised studies made on target species. Therefore warming temperatures are unlikely to impact the recorded 48,359 species globally in the same way.
In any case, a study found that people who fear spiders are more likely to view them as larger than people who do not. And as I write this article at the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, one of the biggest common spiders in Europe (the garden-orb-weaver, or Araneus diadematus) is now reaching maturity, so you might just come across “large” spiders in the middle of their webs more often at this time of year.
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