Spiders are exquisitely sensitive to vibrations, particularly around 1000 Hz or so, the frequency of a very high musical note. Web spiders use this vibration sense to monitor their webs. If an insect gets trapped in the web, the web will vibrate. The spider, perched in the center of the web with legs monitoring the different threads, will sense these vibrations and the spider can use this information to deduce what is in the web, and where.

Some spiders tune their webs, carefully adjusting the tension in the threads so that the vibrate at frequencies to which the spider is especially sensitive, increasing the spider’s odds of sensing the vibration. The web is, essentially, a stringed musical instrument that vibrates at specific frequencies.

On a recent morning hike, I spotted this spider, and snagged a couple of photos. The spider wasn’t especially bothered by my presence, and it wasn’t bothered by my talking—my dog was with me, and I was speaking to him.

The web was in my path—and would be in the path of all the walkers that day, so I needed to remove the spider and the web.

So I took advantage of the musical nature of the web, and the vibration sensitivity of the spider. I sang, quietly, a very high falsetto note. The spider immediately dropped to the ground.

My best guess is that I picked a note that matched a vibration frequency of the web. This note, in resonance with the web, made one or more threads start to vibrate, and something about this vibration freaked the spider out.

I’ve done this a few times. Sometimes I need to adjust the frequency up or down, but, on this particular morning, I nailed it on the first try. The spider scuttled off to safety, I removed the web, and we resumed our hike.