- What I'm gonna do now, is let it walk on
my hands and my arm. - What?
- Are you ready for this? - [Coyote] Yeah. - [Mark] You're gonna let
that thing walk on you? - This is to prove, oh my gosh, I just
saw its fangs. His fangs are huge. (tribal beat music) No matter how brave you may be, I'm willing to bet
that there is something you are afraid of. (dramatic music) Fears or phobias,
as they are known in the medical
sciences community, come in many shapes and sizes. When it comes to
the fear of spiders, properly known as arachnophobia, I think it's safe to
say that this fear, also come with many legs. - [Mark] What are
you looking at? - Look at this. That's a Golden Silk Orbweaver. Look at the size of that spider. That's a female, for sure,
the males are smaller. Whoa, there's more over here. The whole side of this
house is covered in them. Look at this. Wow, look at them. Look, they're all running. Ooh, look at this
one right here. Try to not startle it. Whoa. - [Mark] Oh. - That right there,
is a big spider. Oh boy. You know it might
be interesting, why don't we do an episode like
we did with the black widow, where I free-handle
one of these spiders, to find out if it bites or not. What do you think? - [Mark] Aw man,
they're definitely very
impressive looking, look at that. - Yeah, a lot bigger
than the black widow, that's for sure. I have handled many
species of spiders. And whether they
are huge and hairy, like the desert tarantula, or sleek and toxic,
like the black widow, it never fails to send
shivers down my spine, as they skitter along my arms. (eerie suspenseful music) Oh my. Going right onto the
edge of my finger. Okay, now she's
coming down my arm. She's actually spun a
little thread of web, like she's becoming
secured to me. Oh I thought she
was about to bite. One of my underlying goals, has always been to help people
face their fear of spiders. So today, I will be handing
one of the most common, yet scariest looking
arachnids in Central America, the Golden Orbweaver. But first, I have to catch one. Wow, that is a massive web. Look at the anchor
points down here that then run all the way
up, into the hot zone. This spider's got a
good cache of food already stored up, but given the fact that
there are not too many guard strands on
the outside here, I think I might be able to
actually catch this one. Alright should we go for it? - [Mark] Let's do it. - Let me see if I can get
her to come right down. - [Mark] You know it's a her? - [Coyote] Definitely a her. Ahhh, I'm losing it. Got it, got it, got
it, got it, got it. - [Mark] Nice. - There we go. Whoa, that is a big
spider right there. And I bet anybody
watching right now who has arachnophobia is
thinking to themselves, Coyote you are absolutely crazy. Okay, let's bring it out here, from under the overhand. There we go. It's staying completely
still on the stick, look at that. Arachnid, wow, one
impressive specimen. Whoa, okay, going up to
the top of the stick, look at those hooked legs. That will make your skin crawl. Okay Mark, give me that
little plastic cube. Real slowly before
it drops down on me. Got it, got it, got it, got it. I'm gonna see if I can get
her to slowly walk in there. Okay. There you go. - [Mark] Whoa. - Got it. Wow. That is one intimidating
arachnid right there. Alright, let's get this spider
into a controlled situation and see, just how
dangerous it really is. (dramatic music) Warning, spider bites can
be incredibly dangerous and potentially fatal. Never attempt to catch
or handle a spider. Alright, now I am going to
keep my spider stick with me just in case I need
to balance the animal on it at some point. Oh boy, you see it up in its web and you're like, oh
it's not that big. Until you get it inside
of a clear plastic cube and it's right
next to your face, it looks a lot bigger,
up close and personal. Alright, I'm going
to take off my pack so I have a little
more mobility. Now like Arizona's black widow, this spider is oftentimes
found in residential areas and they build their webs
all over man-made structures. So it's a species that you
oftentimes stumble upon. However, because
they're web builders, they stick to their webs. Now people do encounter them, because if you're out
there in the rainforest, they oftentimes will span
their webs between two trees. And like in one of those
famous adventure movies, if you're walking through
the rainforest at night, whap, you may walk
straight into a web and find this spider
on your person. Now these spiders are armed with a neurotoxic
venom which will attack the nervous system of the prey. And what these spiders
are out here feasting on, is any sort of insect
that's unfortunate enough to fly into their webs. However, some of these
spiders to grow large enough where they actually
take lizards, and I've seen pictures
on the internet, of ones that have
eaten small birds and bats, how crazy is that? Now those are the
ones in Australia. The ones here in Central
and South America don't grow quite as big. And there are actually 23
recognized species worldwide. This is actually a
spider that people often see in Florida and
they show up in bananas. Did you know that? They're actually also
known as the banana spider. - [Mark] Oh. - They've been transported
into the United States through shipments of fruit. Now unlike the wandering spider, this is not a nomadic hunter. It's waiting for its
prey to come to its web. Now let's say a fly or
a beetle gets trapped in that sticky spider silk. What they will do
is rush forward and inflict a bite. That initial hit
from those fangs sends the pry into shock, and as the neurotoxic venom
is beginning to shut down that victim's system, what the spider will do, is crawl back and just
watch its prey struggle. The more it struggles, the more it becomes
entangled in the web. And once it succumbs
to the venom, what they'll do is come in, and
spin a web around the victim and then store it there. Now based on the
variety of orbweaver, they have a different
potency of venom. The one that's here in
Central and South America, while I don't
believe can kill you, is extremely painful. A bite from this spider will cause your arm to swell up, it'll be really bad,
you'll have dry mouth, cramping in your stomach and it's gonna be a really
really rough afternoon, if I end up getting
tagged by this creature. Now here's where it gets
a little tricky guys. Like the black widow,
this spider is capable of giving me a
pretty painful bite. But to prove that this spider
is not just out to bite you, what I'm gonna do now, is let it walk on
my hands and my arm. - What?
- Are you ready for this? - Yeah. - [Mark] You're gonna let
that thing walk on you. - This is to prove, oh my gosh, I just saw its fangs,
his fangs are huge. Okay, maybe I am having
second thoughts about this. Oh boy here we go. (suspenseful music) Alright, what I want to do is actually use my spider stick. And let the spider get
onto the stick first so that it feels a
little more comfortable. There we go. That's a big spider. Now you know what I'm
gonna have to deal with is the webbing, just like
I did the black widow. Can you see that? And the tensile
strength of this web is so much stronger, than
that of the black widow, so I hope that I'm not
tangled up too bad. Okay here we go. I'm gonna start by letting
it crawl onto this hand. Oh boy, oh boy. Let me spin it
for you like that. Wow, it is beautiful,
that's for sure. Alright, it seems to be pretty
calmed down at this point. What I'm gonna do is
put the stick sideways, my mouth is getting dry,
I'm getting nervous. I'm gonna just place my hand
out in front of the spider and see if it will walk
out onto my fingers. Are you ready? One two three. (eerie suspenseful music) Okay, the spider is on my arm. Okay, going up my arm. Okay, okay, oh boy,
I'm losing control of it, it's getting back here, let me see if I can
get it to go that way, and around this way. There we go. It's got its legs up in the air, let me see if I can
keep it completely calm. There you see my hand
is shaking a little bit. - [Mark] Is that a
defensive position? - It's a little bit of
a defensive position with the legs up in
the air like that and it's right on my knuckle. Don't bite me, don't
bite me, don't bite me. Oh I can feel all the
little hooks of its legs. - [Mark] What are you
feeling right now? You feeling those nerves going? - Extremely nervous, I'm
trying to be super still. Let the spider find a place
where it feels comfortable. And hopefully it will
just, oh there we go oh. Look at that, it
wanted to go right back onto the stick. Look, you can actually
see the webbing hanging right from the tip of my finger. Here, let me see if I can
get it back on my hand. (suspenseful music) There we go. She's really just
interested in getting away. Now remember, this spider
does have a neurotoxic venom, very similar to that
of the black widow. I want to just remain
completely calm. - [Mark] If you were
bitten by this spider, to be clear, it's a
very bad situation. - It could potentially
be really bad depending on how much
venom went into my body. Okay, oh man, the webbing
is so much stronger than that of the black widow. Okay, where did she go? - [Mark] On your
elbow, up your back. - Okay, it's coming this way, I'm gonna slowly turn, see if I can get her
back onto my hand. - [Mark] Yep yep
there you go, got it. - [Coyote] There we go. What I don't want to do is
make any sudden movement or pull the webbing too tightly, because if she feels threatened, that is when she's
going to bite. Now the way that most spider
bites end up happening is somebody applies
pressure to the arachnid and they fear for their lives. And a bite is oftentimes
just a warning that hey, I am here,
don't squish me. Now spiders can control
the amount of venom that they inject into
what it is they're biting. And because I am not
a potential prey item, if she were to bite me ooh boy, right onto the
tip of my finger there, she's completely tangling me up. If she were to bite me, it
could possibly be a dry bite, or I would basically keep
my fingers crossed and pray, that it was not a full on
bite loaded with venom, because that could be an
incredibly bad situation. There we go. She feels real
comfortable there. Man, I am getting
completely tangled up. And I can feel how strong
that spider silk is. - [Mark] Coyote. - Yeah yeah yeah. - [Mark] Do you think
you have good control over the situation here? - I don't think you
ever have good control when there's a spider
just freely climbing around on your body,
where did she go? (suspenseful music) Okay. Wow, I'm getting big time
tangled up here guys. Look at that, there's
so much webbing, she's able to just free climb
right out on top of me there. That gives me the opportunity to get rid of some
of that spider silk. Whoa, just a moment
to breath there, where she's not
actually on my hand. - [Mark] Now tell us why
you're doing this Coyote, you have a reason for this. - There's always
a reason for this. And the reason is that
you should not just automatically be afraid
of these spiders. Actually these arachnids
are doing wonderful things for the environment, by eating a lot of pest insects. Now if you're in
Central or South America and you see one of these
outside of your house, you don't need to
be afraid of it. These spiders stick
to their webs, and all they're doing is
catching nuisance insects. Now if you go into that web and you tried to
harass the spider, obviously you may be bitten, but the spider really
has no interest in actually biting me, as long as I don't apply
pressure to its body. I'm getting a little
more comfortable now, but you always have
to keep your guard up, because you see how she's
getting all tangled up in her own webbing? I don't want her to feel like she's being pulled
in any one direction and then end up
inflicting a bite. This is a species
that's only interested in eating insects,
not in biting humans. - [Mark] Now you would never
do this with something like a wandering spider, correct? - No, a wandering spider's
venom is so incredibly potent it could put me in the hospital. A bite from a spider like this, there is the chance
that a lot of venom could go into my body. However, as a human, I am
not prey for this species, so the bite probably
wouldn't be so bad that I'd need to
go to the hospital, however it would swell
up, it would turn red, dry mouth, cramping
in my stomach, but after about 24 hours, it would be nothing more
than a red, itchy spot. You know, my nerves
calm quite a bit, once the spider has found a spot that it is comfortable,
and not walking around. You can see its
mandibles and fangs are well up off of
my hand right now, but if I were to startle her or apply any pressure
to the top of her body, it would force her down, and that's when a bite
would be inflicted. Again, I never recommend
that you go out in the wild and ever try to free-handle
a spider on your own. You never know how your body
would react to the venom if you were bitten. Well guys, it looks like the sun is starting to get a
little low in the sky, which means it's gonna be close to hunting time
for this arachnid, because when the sun gets low, that's when all the
insects come out. So what I want to do now, whoa, she's going down my arm, is safely get her,
back up into her web so that she can go out
and hunt for the night. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild, we'll see you
on the next adventure. Alright, back up into
the web with you. Spiders can be found on
almost every continent and while they're all
technically venomous, they do their best to
save that potent bite, for their prey. Unless threatened or
provoked, as a human, your odds of being
bitten by a spider like the Golden Orbweaver, are slim to none. So if you have the
phobia of arachnids running chills down your spine, Try to tell yourself that
spiders are a good thing. Whether you believe it or not, spiders are actually
our friends. If you thought handling
the Golden Orbweaver was chilling, make sure to
go back and watch the episode where I let the
infamous black widow crawl freely over my hands. And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew, on this season of
Breaking Trail. (coyote howling)
I hate this guy's show in general and this in particular. Take a relatively harmless creature and play danger music over it for 15 minutes to make it look scary. It is only possible to make an orb weaver bite you by being a complete moron (most aggressive spiders are cobwebbers or make no webs at all). These are some of the calmest spiders that exist! Yes, they're carnivorous, but so are moles, and you can play heavy tuba notes over those all day without persuading anyone they're dangerous. This is literally nothing but preying on people's fear of large spiders for money.
I like watching his spider handling videos. I have terrible arachnophobia and watching things such as this helps me. Exposure therapy and all that.
I really want one of these as a pet. They're so adorable!
She is gorgeous! It looks like she's wearing those knitted leg warmers on her knees!
He mentions in the vid these are native to Central America and have invaded Florida, but I can confirm they have invaded Georgia as well.
I never saw any of these when I was a child. We had more of the brown orb weaver spider. But these days it is really rare to find the brown orb weaver, and these things are everywhere. There's a place on our land where they are thick as they are on the side of that house but in a forest along one of our paths, and difficult to see in the brush.
I don't like them. They are very fast and jittery. The brown orb weaver is much more chill and cuter, IMO.
I love spiders at a distance, but I would be right the hell out of there in a heartbeat. Those weird, long orb weavers just give me the willies.