Bad news, Britons. There are people in your midst who are trying to increase the spider population in your nation.
Of all the things that they can be doing, those web-huggers at the London Zoo have decided to take the biggest spider in their country and increase its numbers. Not only does the great raft spider, otherwise known as the great fen spider, have a leg span of up to three inches, it can actually run on top of water to get to its prey. While this prey mostly consists of slow and incautious water skeeters, occasionally these spiders will sense the movement of a small insect drowning in the water, desperately trying to save itself—at which point they’ll go over and eat the thing alive.
I have to admit it’s interesting to learn that you can raise spider babies in little test tubes. And the fact that the zoo has to separate the babies gives us good information: If you don’t keep spiders separated, they’ll eat each other. When those crazies at the zoo achieve their goals, and the spider populations in the UK quadruple, this may be the only way we can fight them.