Gypsy moth spiders

These orb weavers don’t rely on the moth’s accidental collision with its web; they emit the female moth’s sex pheromone, to which male moths are helplessly attracted. These spiders outperform commercial gypsy-moth traps, and they are self-renewing, surviving on mosquitoes and flies when gypsy moths are elsewhere. Consequentially, our moth spiders don’t rely on humans to place them near gypsy-moth infestations, and usually catch the moths before they have a chance to breed and lay eggs.