Spiders Eat Roughly 800 Million Tons Of Insects Per Year, Study Finds

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—Spiders devour approximately 800 million tons insects a year, a new study finds.

The study was conducted at the University of Basel in Switzerland and University in Sweden.

Researchers first gathered data from 65 previous studies to determine how many spiders are currently in seven biomes on the planet.

Their conclusion: altogether there are about 25 million metric tons' worth of them around.

Researchers then used two simple models to calculate how much prey all the world's spiders as a whole kill per year.

In their first approach, they examined how much most spiders generally need to eat to survive, as well as census data on the average spider biomass per square meter in the various biomes.

The second approach was based on prey capture observations in the field, combined with estimates of spider numbers per square meter.

According to their research, 400 to 800 million tons of prey are being killed by spiders each year.

To put this into perspective, all humans together consume an estimated 400 million tons of meat and fish annually, researchers say.

"These estimates emphasize the important role that spider predation plays in semi-natural and natural habitats, as many economically important pests and disease vectors breed in those forest and grassland biomes," says lead author Martin Nyffeler.

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