Spider Riddles: 30 Eight-Legged Riddles with Answers on Riddlepedia
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Spider Riddles: 30 Eight-Legged Riddles with Answers

30 riddles · tap Hint or Answer to reveal

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Spiders are everywhere: in gardens, in garages, in the corner of the bathroom ceiling and all over Halloween decorations. They aren’t insects, they spin silk from their own bodies, and some of them can jump many times their body length or float across the sky on a single thread.

These 30 spider riddles start simple and get sneakier. The easy round is for younger kids, the medium round covers how spiders are built and how they hunt, and the tricky round introduces some amazing spiders most people have never heard of. Every riddle has a hint, and the answers are real spider science.

Easy Spider Riddles

I have eight legs, I’m not an insect, and I spin silk to catch my dinner. What am I?

Hint
Little Miss Muffet met one of me.
Answer
A spider

I’m a sticky net made of silk, and I hang between branches or in a corner. Bugs that fly into me get stuck. What am I?

Hint
A spider builds me.
Answer
A web

I’m a buzzing insect with see-through wings, and if I’m not careful, I’ll end up stuck in a spider’s web. What am I?

Hint
I like to land on your sandwich at picnics.
Answer
A fly

I’m strong, thin and stretchy, and a spider makes me inside its own body. What am I?

Hint
Some fancy scarves are made from a different kind of me, spun by worms.
Answer
Silk

I’m a baby spider, and I hatch from an egg along with lots of brothers and sisters. What am I called?

Hint
It’s “spider” plus a little ending that means “small.”
Answer
A spiderling

In the nursery rhyme, the itsy bitsy spider climbs up something, and the rain washes it out. What did it climb?

Hint
Rainwater runs down it from the roof.
Answer
The water spout

Why are spiders so good with computers?

Hint
Think about what you visit on the internet.
Answer
They love making websites.

In the early morning, a spider’s web sparkles with tiny drops of water, even when it didn’t rain. What are those drops called?

Hint
You’ll find them on the grass too.
Answer
Dew

On which holiday do people hang fake spiderwebs on their porches and dress up in costumes?

Hint
It’s at the end of October.
Answer
Halloween

A spider has 8 legs. How many legs do 2 spiders have?

Hint
Add 8 and 8.
Answer
16

Medium Spider Riddles

Spiders, scorpions and ticks all belong to the same animal group. Animals in this group have eight legs, not six like insects. What’s the group called?

Hint
The name comes from Arachne, a weaver in an old Greek myth.
Answer
Arachnids

An insect’s body has three main parts. How many main body parts does a spider have?

Hint
It’s fewer than an insect.
Answer
Two. A spider has a front part with the head, eyes and legs, and a back part called the abdomen.

I’m the tiny body parts at the back end of a spider. Silk comes out of me. What am I?

Hint
My name sounds like what a spider does with silk.
Answer
Spinnerets

Most spiders have the same number of eyes as they have legs. How many eyes is that?

Hint
Count a spider’s legs.
Answer
Eight. Most spiders have eight eyes, though some have six, two or even none.

I’m a small spider with huge front eyes and amazing eyesight. I don’t wait in a web. I pounce on my food instead. What am I?

Hint
My name says how I move.
Answer
A jumping spider

I’m one of the biggest, hairiest spiders in the world, and some people keep me as a pet in a tank. What am I?

Hint
My name starts with T.
Answer
A tarantula

A spider’s hard outer skin doesn’t stretch. To grow bigger, it climbs out of its old skin and leaves it behind. What is this called?

Hint
Snakes do something similar.
Answer
Molting

A spider waiting at the edge of its web can’t see the middle very well. How does it know when a bug gets caught?

Hint
Pluck a guitar string and touch it.
Answer
It feels the vibrations. The web shakes when something gets stuck.

I’m an arachnid with eight legs, two big pincers and a curled tail with a stinger. I even glow under ultraviolet light. What am I?

Hint
I live in deserts, and I’m not a spider.
Answer
A scorpion

A round web shaped like a wheel, with spokes and a spiral, has a special name that comes from an old word for a ball or circle. What is it?

Hint
It’s a three-letter word that also means a magic glowing ball.
Answer
An orb web

Tricky Spider Riddles

I’m a hairy hunter that chases my food across the ground. When my babies hatch, they ride around on my back. What kind of spider am I?

Hint
I’m named after an animal that hunts in packs.
Answer
A wolf spider

I dig a burrow in the ground and cover it with a little lid made of silk and dirt. When a bug walks by, I pop out and grab it. What am I?

Hint
My name is a kind of door you’d find in a floor.
Answer
A trapdoor spider

I’m the only spider known to spend almost my whole life underwater. I breathe air from a bubble that I hold in place with silk. What am I?

Hint
My name is the same as an old underwater machine shaped like a bell.
Answer
The diving bell spider

I’m a tiny jumping spider from Australia. The males have a bright, colorful flap that they lift and wave in a dance. What am I?

Hint
I’m named after a bird with a fancy tail.
Answer
A peacock spider

Some young spiders climb to a high spot, let out a few silk threads and float away on the wind, sometimes for miles. What is this called?

Hint
It’s named after something you might get at a birthday party.
Answer
Ballooning

In a famous children’s book, a clever spider spins words like “SOME PIG” into her web to save a pig named Wilbur. What’s the spider’s name?

Hint
The book is named after her web.
Answer
Charlotte. The book is “Charlotte’s Web” by E. B. White.

A spider has 8 legs and a fly has 6. How many legs are there altogether on 4 spiders and 3 flies?

Hint
Work out the spiders and the flies separately.
Answer
  1. 4 × 8 = 32 and 3 × 6 = 18, and 32 + 18 = 50.

Spiders don’t have any bones inside their bodies. What is the hard covering on the outside that protects them called?

Hint
It’s a skeleton, but where is it?
Answer
An exoskeleton

Almost all spiders use this to stop their prey, but only a very few kinds are dangerous to people. What is it?

Hint
It comes out through their fangs.
Answer
Venom

Take the first two letters off SPIDER, then put an R in front of what’s left. Now you have someone sitting on a bike or a horse. What’s the word?

Hint
First you’ll have “IDER.”
Answer
RIDER

Make It a Spider Game

  • Yarn web relay: sit in a circle with a ball of yarn. Read a riddle, and whoever answers it holds the end of the yarn and tosses the ball to the next reader. By the end, the group has spun its own giant web.
  • Eight-legged scoring: draw a spider’s body on the board. Every correct answer adds one leg. Can the class finish four spiders (32 legs) before the bell?
  • Spider spotting: after the medium round, take a short walk outside or around the house and look for webs. Try to find a round orb web and a messy cobweb, but look with your eyes, not your hands.

Looking for more creepy crawlies? Try our insect riddles, these bee riddles or our ghost riddles for more Halloween fun.