You are having coffee. I’m having coffee. What does the caffeine in our coffee do to spiders? Dear Science has the answer:

Let’s start with the animal studies. Probably the most infamous is a study done on spiders by Dr. David Noever at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Dr. Noever was attempting to find good model organisms for studying the effects of drugs. Making a spiderweb takes a lot of planning and effort, and it’s easy to see when things go awry. The high-on-pot webs were beautiful until the spiders became lazy and stopped partway through. Caffeine created completely haphazard webs, with neither organization nor function. Search for the images of the spiderwebs; the effect is pretty impressive.

It seems caffeine is to spiders what booze is to humans. Pot has the same effect on humans and spiders

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

8 replies on “This Is Your Spider on Caffeine”

  2. Except when spiders get the munchies, they have to go to their web.

    And then…oh, oops, dude, I like didn’t weave my web or something…do you have any ‘sects to chomp on?

  4. Last time I spin spiderwebs …

    Oh, wait, I’m a human, not a spider!

    Tests on humans are mostly observational, and indicate increases in effective intelligence and cardio health when used moderately.

    E.g. 4-8 cups a days of coffee, and ZERO CUPS OF THAT VERY BAD ENERGY DRINK CRAP!

  6. Not only is this an incredibly old piece of fake journalism it wasn’t even funny or realistic the first time I read or saw the youtube of it like 5 years ago. Jesus.

  7. Seriously though. Who actually thinks drugs work like that. you can’t give random drugs to any living thing, ever tossed a roach? Think the grass is fell on got high?

    Spiders don’t have THC receptors obviously.

  8. #3 – I remember that. It was about an inch in size, and impossibly intricate. The one on nicotine was like three strands randomly attached.

    The old Psychedelics Encyclopedia – man, would I love to have a copy of that book – had pictures of the results of that experiment.

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