With the growing number of hurricanes and tropical storms drenching and destroying the country today, you would think that at least the increase in extreme weather would at least make a dent in the insect and spider population we have to deal with on top of that. Unfortunately, a recent study revealed that these extreme weather conditions are actually doing the exact opposite. Spiders, the aggressive species in particular, are instead adapting to the increase in these storms, evolving in order to better ride them out and survive. This means that the most dangerous spiders we have to deal with are growing even more dangerous and impervious to our own attempts to destroy these deadly pests.

When these hurricanes rage along our coastline the habitat standing in their way can be completely reshaped in a very short period of time. This, in turn, puts tremendous pressure on the creatures living there to either relocate or find some way to survive. A recent study of how the Anelosimus studiosus spiders living in these storm prone areas found that an incredible 75 percent of the colonies have now adapted to survive the intense storms. Researchers specifically looked to see whether it was the docile or aggressive spiders that were evolving to survive the storms. They discovered that the aggressive colonies were much more successful at adapting than the docile ones.

The reason for this lies in the aggressive spider’s superior ability to gather resources in times of scarcity. Since aggressiveness is passed down through each generation from the parent spider to the offspring, the number of docile spiders that perish in the storms continues to drop with each hurricane, gradually eliminating the number of docile spiders born in each generation and increasing the passing on of more aggressive character traits. After a storm passes, the colonies with spiders that pursue food and resources more aggressively produce more eggs, meaning more of those aggressive spiders are likely to survive and pass on that aggressive nature. So, now we have to deal with not only more of these devastating storms, but we also have to watch out for more dangerous and aggressive spiders.

Have you noticed an increase in dangerous or aggressive spiders around your home?