spiders

[LISA E]

do spiders poo?

[New Forester]

Yes -- they do droppings just like tiny bird ones.  If you look below a spider's web you'll often find them.

 

Spiders can't easily get liquid water to drink, so they need to minimise the amount of urine they produce.  Their urine is therefore a white paste of uric acid crystals, instead of a solution of urea as ours is.  Birds also do this, which explains why their droppings look similar.  Like birds, spiders produce faeces and urine together.  Various other animals also use uric acid, including some insects and even some desert mammals.

 

Spiders only eat liquid food (juices sucked out of their victims) and so their droppings do not contain large solids, but only tiny black bits, making the bird-dropping effect almost perfect.

 

Incidentally, there are quite a few small moths and caterpillars which look exactly like bird droppings stuck to leaves.

[apricot2]

I have a pale birch table and in September/October I have to check it every morning to make sure there's no spider poo.  Generally there are 10-12 black spots together.

[Ray the DJ]

It's a good question. Though why you asked it, I just can't understand.
I think if a creature eats, it has to get rid of the waste.  So it must poo and pee.