How Does a Spider Make Its Silk?
Spider silk is stronger than any known natural or synthetic fiber. The silk that a spider uses to weave its web is produced by glands inside the spider’s body.
The silk comes out as thin liquid threads through little tubes called “spinnerets.” Spiders harden their silk by acidifying it. As soon as a thread touches air, it hardens.
A spider makes two different kinds of silk to construct a web. It spins a dry silk to make the frame of the web, and a sticky silk to form the trap that catches and holds insects, which the spider eats.
The spider itself is protected by an oily covering on its body. This enables the spider to walk right across those sticky strands of web.