To many, spiders are already nightmare-induced hell demons that needs to be destroyed with fire regardless of what purpose they serve.
And now, thanks to one team of scientists, we've all been given a a new reason to burn the house down should we see one – because it might be a zombie robot spider.
Yes, you read that right.
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A team of experts at Rice University in Houston, Texas, lead by mechanical engineer Daniel Preston, dead wolf spiders are being turned into “necrobots” which will see them have their legs unfurl so that they can grip onto objects using robotic machinary.
According to the experts, spider legs don't have muscles for extension, and can only move their legs via hydraulic pressure.
So, horrifyingly, the scientists jabbed a needle through the spider's back, sealed it with superglue and kept squeezing air into the bodies to activate the spider's legs.
This gave the (thankfully, dead) creatures a full range of motion in less than one second.
A spokesman for the team said: “We took the spider, we placed the needle in it not knowing what was going to happen.
"We had an estimate of where we wanted to place the needle.
“And when we did, it worked, the first time, right off the bat.
“I don't even know how to describe it, that moment.”
The team managed to get the spider to pull the body over another spider up using this method – for what reason, they have not yet made clear.
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No actual purpose or solid suggestions as to the reason for the experiment has been detail as yet.
But, a spokesman said: “One of the applications we could see this being used for is micro-manipulation, and that could include things like micro-electronic devices.
“We experimented with coating the wolf spiders in beeswax and found that its mass decrease was 17 times less than the uncoated spider over 10 days, which meant it was retaining more water and its hydraulic system might function longer.”
Creepy, vengeful spider bots anyone?
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