Spider silk is a most amazing and versatile material, and spiders put it to all sorts of uses. It helps them to climb, to travel from place to place and most famously, to ensnare their prey. But one group of spiders, the uloborids, use their silk in a unique way – as a murderous garbage-compactor.

Most spiders kill with venom and even those that pose no threat to humans pack enough poison to deal with insect prey. Their famous webs are simply elegant traps, designed to immobilise prey so that the spider can deliver a fatal bite. But the uloborid spiders have uniquely lost their venom glands and have to subdue their prey through other means.

Two years ago,