Spider Silk - Human Uses

Human Uses

Peasants in the southern Carpathian Mountains used to cut up tubes built by Atypus and cover wounds with the inner lining. It reportedly facilitated healing, and even connected with the skin. This is believed to be due to antiseptic properties of spider silk and because the silk is rich in vitamin K, which can be effective in clotting blood.

Some fishermen in the Indo-Pacific ocean use the web of Nephila to catch small fish.

The silk of Nephila clavipes has recently been used to help in mammalian neuronal regeneration.

At one time, it was common to use spider silk as a thread for crosshairs in optical instruments such as telescopes, microscopes, and telescopic rifle sights.

Due to the difficulties in extracting and processing substantial amounts of spider silk, the largest known piece of cloth made of spider silk is an 11-by-4-foot (3.4 by 1.2 m) textile with a golden tint made in Madagascar in 2009. Eighty-two people worked for four years to collect over one million golden orb spiders and extract silk from them.

In 2011, spider silk fibers were used in the field of optics to generate very fine diffraction patterns over N-slit interferometric signals utilized in optical communications. In 2012, spider silk fibers were used to create a set of violin strings.