Where does spiders come from?

Question

what are they good for?, and is it true that humans swallow 7 spiders a year while sleeping?

Answer 1

The idea that people swallow so many spiders while sleeping is a myth. As for where spiders come from, nobody is quite sure. The same place we all come from, maybe. Here's what the ancient Greeks had to say on the subject, though.

There was a young woman named Arachne, who was a great weaver. She could weave any pattern or picture. The problem was that she liked to brag. A lot. She even bragged that she was a better weaver than the goddess Athena, who had invented weaving, which is a really bad idea, not just because it's a bad idea to say you're better than the person who invented what you're doing, but because she was a goddess and the ancient Greek gods were very jealous.

Anyway, one day, Arachne encounters an old woman, who councils her about her bragging, and tells her to repent, or else Athena's gonna get her. Arachne is not impressed and tells the old woman to just shut up, whereupon the wold woman reveals herself to be, who else, the goddess Athena. Athena gives Arachne one last chance to repent, but Arachne doesn't, and even challenges Athena right then and there to a weaving contest.

So the looms are set up, and the two get to weaving. Athena weaves scenes of the glories of the gods. Arachne weaves scenes where the gods have really screwed up. The town elders judge Arachne's weaving to be the better, not realizing who her competitor is, and even Athena can't find a single flaw in it, so she just rips it to shreds. Depressed, Arachne hangs herself, and Athena takes pity on her and turns her into a spider. Hence where we get the word arachnid.

As for what they're good for, they're good for a number of things. They eat annoying bugs like mosquitos, mostly, and some of the bigger ones eat annoying and even dangerous rodents, and the wolf spider will take on and eat other, more dangerous spiders, like the brown recluse or the black widow. Also, the scent of a tarantula will keep all insects, including roaches, out of the house.

Answer 2

Spiders hatch from eggs.  For the most part, spiders control insect populations.  It seems unlikely that humans swallow spiders while they sleep.  That would make an otherwise efficient killing machine look rather careless.