The Intricate Craft of Making a Spider Web

An intricate spider web from a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

But if you attended the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house last Saturday, you could make a spider web--using chopsticks and colorful yarn.

That was the family arts-and-crafts activity planned by Tabatha Yang, the Bohart Museum's education and outreach coordinator. The fun activity is part of every open house.

"Spider silk is one of the strongest naturally occurring materials," says arachnologist Jason Bond, director of the Bohart Museum. "Spider silk is stronger than steel, stronger and more stretchy than Kevlar; a pencil thick strand of spider silk could be used to stop a Boeing 747 in flight.

You won't find a better advocate of spiders than Professor Bond, who is president-elect of the American Arachnological Society. At UC Davis, he is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology; and associate dean, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

"Spiders," Bond says, "consume 400-800 million tons of prey, mostly insects, each. Some spiders are incredibly fast--able to run up to 70 body lengths per second (10X faster than Usain Bolt). Athough nearly all 47,000-plus spider species have venom used to kill their insect prey, very few actually have venom that is harmful to humans."

A colorful spider web--pink and blue--by UC Davis student Jasmine Chow. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

UC Davis student Jasmine Chow, an undergraduate researcher and a Bohart Museum intern, showed the attendees how to craft a spider web. 

"It was such a great event," Chow said. "I had an awesome time teaching the kids how to make spider webs. I was happy that they were all super into it and were really engaged with the activity. Some even asked for extra yarn so they could continue working on their spiderwebs at home. The yarn was given, of course!"

The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946 and located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, houses a global collection of eight million insects. It is also the home of a live petting zoo and an insect-themed gift shop. For more information access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.