Summary: Certain magical creatures from fantasy stories are based on real animals, like Aragog the spider from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This blog explores the accuracies and differences between Aragog and our real spiders, and starts with a brief summary. Each section details a different aspect of the spiders’ lives, including their features, diets, webs, habits, and relationships with snakes. Pointe Pest Control provides effective treatments for spiders and other invasive pests.
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Thrilling book and movie scenes can have a lasting effect on us, depending on our real-life fears. The bug-infested room in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the chestburster event in Alien are two of the most iconic fear-inducing scenes in media. Another example that often crawls (you’ll see…) under the radar is from the most magical franchise of all: Harry Potter.
If you’ve seen the movies, read the books, or did both (like a lot of us), you may recall a squeamish scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron find themselves face-to-face with countless spiders, including the father spider Aragog. But how accurate are these antagonistic arachnids? Let’s see as we discuss the famous scene before we compare Aragog and his offspring to our real spiders.
**We will be mostly focusing on the details from the novel version of this scene, which slightly differs from the movie scene. But since they’re almost identical, our analysis applies to both.**
Oh, What a Tangled Web Aragog Weaves
The Aragog model from the Forbidden Forest in the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London
If you need a refresher — or if you’ve never seen or read it — here’s our summary of the “spider scene” from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Spoilers ahead!
As he’s being arrested for letting the dangerous monster loose in Hogwarts (supposedly), Hagrid loudly tells Harry and Ron to “follow the spiders” (Rowling, 1999, p. 264). They take his giant boarhound Fang into the Forbidden Forest, where they trail the spiders until they’re captured by three giant spiders that carry them deeper into the forest.
Aragog, the old father of all the spiders, emerges to tell his children to eat these non-Hagrid intruders. Harry quickly explains that Hagrid is in trouble and they need Aragog’s advice on how to handle the castle’s monster. Aragog and Harry discuss the spider’s origins, the original attack of the monster, and the reasons why the spiders don’t invade Hogwarts.
Aragog doesn’t kill humans out of his respect for Hagrid, but he instructs his kids to enjoy the feast of these three travelers. Luckily, Ron’s father’s flying car bursts through the trees and rescues the gang from their nightmarish fate. Harry and his friends use Aragog’s information to eventually find the monster and the Chamber, but we’re still focused on the logistics of these cart-sized spiders.
The Features of Spiders
For such a whimsical world, the spiders in the Forbidden Forest have pretty normal features. Well, besides their alarming size, but we’ll get to that later. In the book, Aragog has gray hairs, white eyes, and 18-foot-long legs. The novel says he is the size of a young elephant, which is too big for our liking. A few of his children are also huge, but most of them are average size. All of the fictional spiders are Acromantula from the rainforests in southeast Asia.
The unnamed spiders are described as having:
- 8 eyes
- 8 legs
- Black coloring
- Thick hair
- Shiny black pedilaps
- Cart-sized bodies
- Web-weaving abilities
The real spider that’s the most similar (in our opinion) to Aragog and his kids is the wolf spider. They certainly look similar, as wolf spiders have:
- 8 eyes
- 4 big eyes and 4 little eyes
- Earth-toned coloring with dark markings
- An approximate size of 2 inches
- Great vision
- Strong climbing and running abilities
As far as physical features go, the fictional spiders aren’t too far off from the real deal.
Spider Diets
Aragog says he refrains from attacking humans due to his respect for Hagrid, but he won’t stop his children from getting their fair share of meat. Apparently, the Acromantula species has the instinct to attack anyone since they are carnivorous creatures. They are said to even eat their own dead, and any animal they eat is first injected with the spider’s venom.
Similarly to Acromantula, real spiders are carnivores that inject venom into their prey to paralyze and kill it before dining. Returning to the wolf spider comparison, wolf spiders hunt for their meals at night. They don’t build webs, so these arachnids need to stay on the move if they want to eat the other ground-dwelling insects and spiders.
Are There Really Domed Webs?
One of the major features of Aragog and his kids is the type of webs they weave. In the novel, they’re said to be dome-shaped and sit within a misty atmosphere in the deepest part of the Forbidden Forest. According to the lore, Acromantula females produce about 100 eggs that hatch in the webs 2 months later. Argog tells Harry that they would never invade the castle since they prefer a dark and quiet environment, which makes sense for the monstrous creatures.
Fun fact: there are spiders that spin dome-shaped webs in our world! The filmy dome spiders create webs in a horizontal dome shape and sit upside down in their habitat. But wolf spiders don’t spin webs and therefore don’t have a place for their eggs. The females are larger than the males (same as Acromantula) and carry their babies around for the first two weeks. Wolf spiders are especially common in Illinois and Missouri since they can hide in houses (eek!) in the frigid winters.
Arachnid Habits
Aragog can talk — he has to in order to move the plot along — and he clicks his pincers together as he speaks. The novel notes that his older children who speak will also click their pincers when they are emotional or fearful, which adds another layer to the sentient spiders. Supplemental Harry Potter resources suggest that Aragog is about 53 years old when he dies (long after this story), leaving his beloved children behind.
Wolf spiders also have pincers that they use quite often, but to our knowledge, they don’t use their pincers as reactionary devices. Their two jaws (pincers) have fangs that the spiders use to inject venom into their prey. Wolf spiders aren’t technically dangerous to humans, but it’s best to avoid getting bitten by them when possible. Also, wolf spiders live for up to 2 years, so we thankfully don’t have to worry about a 53-year-old spider wandering around!
Snakes and Spiders, Oh My!
Based on our analysis, Acromantula and wolf spiders are largely similar. But it’s time to get to the meat of this discussion: are snakes and spiders actually enemies?
Well, they certainly are in the story! Aragog says the spiders fear the Chamber’s monster (a snake) more than anything else. Harry and Ron find a torn book page in Hermione’s petrified fist that backs up Aragog’s statement: “Spiders flee before the Basilisk [snake], for it is their mortal enemy” (Rowling, 1999, p. 290). Clearly, Acromantula and snakes aren’t hanging out together in the Forbidden Forest.
In the real world, spiders are (naturally) a reliable food source for many creatures. The most common spider-eaters are lizards, centipedes, wasps, scorpions, birds, and…snakes. Garter snakes and green snakes are known for eating spiders, but there are many more snakes that snack on spiders. There’s also a surprising number of spiders that eat snakes, if you wanted to have a new nightmare. Black widows are dangerous to snakes (and humans) because of their deadly venom, which would be perfect for the Potions Cabinet!
Keep Spiders In The Forbidden Forest Where They Belong
We don’t have any 15-foot-tall spiders here (thank goodness!), but the spiders that we do see are enough for us! The licensed technicians of Pointe Pest Control are committed to solving each pest issue with the utmost care and efficiency. We inspect the property for all signs of pest activity and create a personalized treatment plan to target each problem. Whether you have a family of spiders or an army of ants, Pointe has the long-term solutions for your pest concerns. We don’t need a spell book to eliminate pests; contact us for a free quote on our dependable services!
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Citations
Acromantula. (n.d.). Harry Potter Wiki. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Acromantula
Aragog. (n.d.). Harry Potter Wiki. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Aragog
Filmy dome spider. (n.d.). Missouri Department of Conservation. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/filmy-dome-spider
Forgotten Forest. (n.d.). Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/experience/forbidden-forest/
Linderman, K. (2024, July 19). Are you finding wolf spiders in your home? What to do and how to stay safe in Illinois. Belleville News-Democrat. Available at https://www.bnd.com/news/state/illinois/article290198284.html (Accessed on October 31, 2024).
Rowling, J.K. (1999). Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. Scholastic Inc.
What eats spiders? Our guide to natural spider prevention. (2021, August 4). Romney Pest Control. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://romneypestcontrol.com/what-eats-spiders/
Wolf spider. (n.d.). Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://dnr.illinois.gov/education/wildaboutpages/wildaboutinvertebrates/wildaboutspiders/family-lycosidae/waspwolfspidergp.html
Wolf spiders. (n.d.). Missouri Department of Conservation. Retrieved October 31, 2024, from https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/wolf-spiders
