@crwydryny There are probably quadrillions of spiders living in every corner of the globe, so even if killing off all of them was even remotely feasible - it would be extremely arrogantly unwise to do so.
I don’t like spiders either. But consider this: spiders have existed since the Carboniferous Period. For those of you less familiar with geological periods, that means they’ve existed for, at the very least, 298 million years. That’s far, far longer than humans have existed. Spiders live everywhere in the world except Antarctica, and you can bet they play an invaluable part in every non-Antarctic ecosystem on Earth. Even if we could somehow eliminate all of them, I couldn’t tell you what the ecological consequences would be - other than that they would be drastic.
Spiders aren’t like those other animals you mentioned. The dodo bird was one species. Spiders are an entire order. To put that in perspective, large cats, domestic cats, dogs, bears, skunks, weasels, badgers, racoons, mongooses, hyenas, walruses, and seals are all part of one order. So the extinction of every spider everywhere would have a much, much bigger effect on wildlife (which also includes plants, funguses, and bacteria) than any one species of animal.
TL;DR - Spiders are too important for ecosystems for us get rid of.
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@crwydryny There are probably quadrillions of spiders living in every corner of the globe, so even if killing off all of them was even remotely feasible - it would be extremely arrogantly unwise to do so.
I don’t like spiders either. But consider this: spiders have existed since the Carboniferous Period. For those of you less familiar with geological periods, that means they’ve existed for, at the very least, 298 million years. That’s far, far longer than humans have existed. Spiders live everywhere in the world except Antarctica, and you can bet they play an invaluable part in every non-Antarctic ecosystem on Earth. Even if we could somehow eliminate all of them, I couldn’t tell you what the ecological consequences would be - other than that they would be drastic.
Spiders aren’t like those other animals you mentioned. The dodo bird was one species. Spiders are an entire order. To put that in perspective, large cats, domestic cats, dogs, bears, skunks, weasels, badgers, racoons, mongooses, hyenas, walruses, and seals are all part of one order. So the extinction of every spider everywhere would have a much, much bigger effect on wildlife (which also includes plants, funguses, and bacteria) than any one species of animal.
TL;DR - Spiders are too important for ecosystems for us get rid of.