AKA: Night’s Despair

According to West Virginian superstition: you should never eat before you go to bed, else you’ll have a spider in your head. These spiders are commonly known as Tongue Bunnies－a species of arachnid that only lays its eggs inside of open, human mouths. Adults are 3 - 4 in. long (including their legs) and are covered in dark brown hair with spots of black on their abdomens. They have a very acute sense of smell and can move from place to place with surprising speed.

After mating in the spring, females begin to look for locations to lay their eggs－ venturing throughout human households to reside under beds or on bedroom walls. At night, the spiders wait for the scent of food to alert it of a human’s mouth; then, they amble towards it.

A Tongue Bunny either crawls into an open mouth or slides between one’s lips, quickly releasing its eggs into a hastily spun sack. The mouth’s moisture and chemical makeup activates the hatching of the spiderlings,…