Why don't Spiders stick to their own webs?

Question

It seems like that is asked a lot but I have never seen an answer for it.

Answer 1

The do keep changing web sites, don't they? Get it, "web - sites?" come on, laugh.

Answer 2

If you were to pick a spider off its web and then
toss it back against the web, it would stick. As
others have indicated, the radii of the web are
not sticky and the spider walks on them. Also
the spider's legs are coated with an oil that
helps prevent them from sticking to the web.

There are two kinds of sticky orb webs, one
kind, the most common, has liquid glue-like
material in droplets along the sticky part of the
web. The other kind has no such viscid material
but is covered with thousands of tiny loops of
thread which act like velcro, catching on the
least irregularity in whatever touches it.

Answer 3

Because not all parts of a spider's web are sticky, and the spider knows where to step. Picture an orb web, like the big round ones you see in your garden. You know how they spiral toward the middle, with spokes radiating out to the edge? The spiral is sticky, but the spokes aren't.
Spider silk is a polymer. A polymer is a large molecule made out of a string of identical parts, like a chain is made out of lots of similar links. In spider silk, the links are made of protein and sugar.
Spider silk is squeezed out from spigot-like parts on the back end of a spider called spinnerets. Usually one pair of spinnerets makes a given kind of silk. Most spiders have six spinnerets, though some have only four.
When spiders are squeezing out the sticky silk, the sticky part comes out as a coating on regular silk. When a strand is done, the spider twangs it with a leg, which causes the sticky stuff to arrange itself in little globs all along the strand rather than as a coating.
Why? We're not sure. Maybe the globs have more holding power.
Spider silk comes in several varieties, depending on what it's going to be used for. Besides webs, spiders use it to make drag lines, which they use as safety lines. They use silk to surround their egg sacks and sometimes to wrap up bugs they catch. Some use it to make small parachutes, which they use to drift from place to place on the wind.
Professor Austad told me some other neat things.
Unless they're starving, all spiders make a drag line all the time. You know those cobwebs you find in corners? They're usually old drag lines that stick together where there's been heavy spider traffic.
Some spiders live in their orb webs a long time, while other spiders remake their orb webs every day. Because the spider silk in the web is made of protein and costs a lot of energy to make, these spiders usually eat their old webs before making a new one.

Answer 4

Two reasons. Webs are not sticky everywhere. They are more like cables that have sticky droplets along them. So, if you aren't touching one of the droplets, you don't stick.

The second reason is that even if one of the eight legs happens to hit a sticky spot, you still have seven more legs you can use to pull yourself off.

Think of how Velcro works. If you only have one or two threads binding, the bond isn't so strong. If many, many threads are binding, the bond is very strong.
So, an insect that hits multiple sticky spots will adhere pretty well. But no spider worth his fangs will just wait around, they will all run out and start attacking so that the insect doesn't have a chance to struggle free.

Answer 5

Spiders do not usually adhere to their own webs. However, they are not immune to their own glue. Some of the strands of the web are sticky, and others are not. For example, if a spider has chosen to wait along the outer edges of its web, it may spin a non-sticky prey or signal line to the web hub to monitor web movement. Spiders have to be careful to only climb on the non-sticky strands of their webs.