Most spiders don’t have great eyesight, so they probably can’t tell if you’re looking at them or not. However, some spiders like the jumping spider or the wolf spider have good eyesight and may be able to see where you’re looking.
Many spiders have eight eyes, but only a few spider species can use them to the full extent. That’s why it might be hard to tell whether a spider knows you’re looking at them, but spiders that have good eyesight might be able to tell if you’re looking at them.
Can Spiders Tell You’re Looking at Them?
Most spiders don’t have good enough eyesight to see where you’re looking, but some spider species’ vision is good enough to be able to see you and your eyes and thus might be able to tell if you’re looking at them.
The vast majority of spiders don’t have good eyesight. Tarantulas, for example, have terrible eyesight so they have to rely on other senses to move around and sense their surroundings.
The tarantula will use urticating hairs, for example, to get an idea of what is going on around it, because it can’t see very well.
But even the spiders that don’t see well have eyes. However, these eyes don’t help them see what is going on around them, so they won’t be able to see if you’re looking at them.
They’ll detect you with their hairs, while some spiders also heavily rely on their webs to tell what’s happening.
On the other hand, some spider species can see very well what is happening around them. Some of these spiders that can see well include jumping spiders, wolf spiders, flower spiders, and net-casting spiders.
These spiders will possibly be able to see if you’re looking at them, but the thing with these spiders is that not many people own them as pets, so it’s not usual to see them around humans.
That’s because these spiders have good enough eyesight to be able to avoid you. You won’t even be able to come close to them because they’re easily startled, which means you won’t have the chance to test whether they can see you looking at them.
But even for the spiders that can see well, it might be a bit too difficult to truly tell whether they can notice you looking at them – most likely, they can see you looking at them, but it would also be hard to know whether they mind it or not.
Related Article: How to Tell if a Spider is Playing Dead
Why Do Spiders Stare at You?
Spiders might be looking at you because they’re trying to evaluate whether you’re a predator or an animal of prey so they can coordinate their next move.
As creepy as it might seem to see a spider looking at you with those eight, mysterious eyes, they’re not trying to scare you away. Instead, what they’re doing is evaluating whether you’re a threat so they can easily escape if they find you to be that.
Most spiders are scared by the presence of a larger animal, especially the animals that they perceive to be threats to them.
That’s why they will escape if they see you or another larger animal. But in some cases, the spiders that can see well might stare you down for a moment or two just to see whether you’re truly a threat or not.
Jumping spiders, in particular, are known for this type of behavior. They have good eyesight so they will use their eyes to spot prey and to see whether the prey is worthy of a pursue or not.
And they need to evaluate that before they take any action because they hunt by pouncing on their prey. Any wrong action they take might result in their death or injury, so they tend to be wary around large creatures like humans.
Spiders might stare at you to determine whether you’re a threat to them.
Some spiders are quite intelligent. They might be using eyesight also to see if you’re looking at them, so these spiders may be looking at you to see if you’re staring at them.
Related Article: What Do Jumping Spiders Eat?
Why Some Spiders Can’t See You Looking At Them
The majority of spider species don’t have good eyesight, so they don’t know if you’re looking at them or not.
However, it might still appear as though they’re looking at you with their eight eyes, but in reality, they aren’t. Their eyesight is not very good, but they might be turning towards you because they’re using other senses to detect you and evaluate you as a threat.
Many spiders use hairs on their bodies to see and spot your movements. And some spiders (like tarantulas) have most of these hairs on their front legs, so they need to be turned towards you to easily spot your movements.
This will make it seem as though the spider is staring you directly in your eyes, but in reality, that is not happening because the spider is not capable of that behavior.
Instead, it’s using other senses to spot your movement, which means it has to turn to you front-facing, making it seem as though it’s looking at you.
It’s also a bit hard to tell what the spider is thinking or feeling when it is looking at you. There have not been many studies done on this subject so we can only imagine what it must be like for the spider if it is looking at you.
What they see is likely a large animal that could be a threat to them, so they need to make sure you don’t injure them.
Read More: How Many Eyes do Tarantulas Have?
Conclusion
Most spiders can’t see very well, so they can’t tell if you’re looking at them. However, some spiders have good eyesight so they might be able to see if you’re looking towards them.
But in most cases, spiders are just evaluating you and the situation around them, which will impact their actions. They want to make sure they survive and don’t get caught in difficult or nasty situations, so they will use their eyes to do so.
Stuart is the editor of Fauna Facts. He edits our writers’ work as well as contributing his own content. Stuart is passionate about sustainable farming and animal welfare and has written extensively on cows and geese for the site.