Spiders have a monstrous appetite, eating up to 800 million tonnes of prey per year

The world’s spiders eat 400-800 million tonnes of insects every year - equivalent to the amount of meat and fish that humans consume over the same period, a study said Tuesday.

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers used data from 65 previous studies to estimate that a total of 25 million metric tonnes of spiders exist on Earth.

Taking into account how much food spiders need to survive, the team then calculated the eight-legged creatures’ annual haul of insects and other invertebrates.

“Our estimates... suggest that the annual prey kill of the global spider community is in the range of 400-800 million metric tonnes,” they wrote in the journal The Science of Nature.

This showed just how big a role spiders play in keeping pests and disease-carriers at bay - especially in forests and grasslands where most of them live.

“We hope that these estimates and their significant magnitude raise public awareness and increase the level of appreciation for the important global role of spiders,” the study authors wrote.