Don’t worry, skincare girls—your moisturizer probably won’t attract spiders.
Sol de Janeiro’s Delícia Drench Body Butter launched earlier this month and has quickly become a holy grail product for skincare enthusiasts. In addition to hyaluronic acid, the lotion is packed with gorgeous ingredients like copaiba, passionflower seed oil, and prebiotic hibiscus to lock in moisture and soothe dry, “dull” skin, according to the brand’s website. Scented with velvet plum, vanilla orchid, and sandalwood for an “uplifting experience,” this $48 body butter comes in an adorable violet jar and is sure to become a must-have in beauty shoots and GRWM videos .
Sol de Janeiro went viral on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit this week, with users claiming they were hunted, bitten, and (unsuccessfully) wooed by tarantulas while using the brand’s new moisturizer. While body butter may be irresistible to humans, it’s unlikely to be sexually arousing to solitary arachnids.
Catherine Scott, a spider behavioral ecologist and postdoc in McGill University’s Lehmann Laboratory, told TechCrunch that mating in tarantulas involves visual and vibrational signals, not just scent.
“They have excellent vision (for a spider) and even if the scent does smell like a potential mate, they won’t simply run to the source of the scent unless it also looks like a spider,” Scott said.
The product began to gain popularity in the beauty community, with early reviews praising its moisturizing properties and irresistible scent, but this week, the product was put under pressure after a Sephora reviewer named chemkats claimed that the scent “attracts tarantulas.” went viral on mainstream social media.
“I want to love them so bad, but one of the ingredients is like kryptonite for tarantulas! When I put it on right away, one comes out,” the reviewer wrote.
They added that they usually saw a tarantula “every three years” but since using the lotion they started seeing tarantulas “every day”.
“Well, one time, the spider was so eager to eat any ingredient that it chased me,” chemkats continued. “It’s like following a scent.”
One man claimed a tarantula bit them after they used his wife’s lotion. “Spiders love it, and so do people in the elevator,” another Sephora reviewer wrote. One Reddit user said they placed another of the brand’s products, called “Brazilian Butt Cream,” on paper towels , and then placed a different brand of lotion on another paper towel, the spider seemed only interested in the Sol de Janeiro’s paper towel products.
Scott points out that the term “wolf spider” can be applied to “the entire family of spiders” scientifically named Lycopodidae. What many people may mistake for “wolf spiders” may be house spiders in the family Araneidae, which have different behaviors and chemical interactions.
If the user does correctly identify their arachnid stalker as a wolf spider, then “technically” the lotion may contain compounds that the spiders may study because they think they are following chemical cues associated with their prey .
“But the story about the spider chasing the person wearing it doesn’t hold true,” she continued. “This sound is typical of a spider that gets scared when people move a lot of distance near it, so it tries to find cover, often running into the shadow of the person – which makes people think it’s ‘attacking’,” he said. Instead it’s actually trying to escape.” Hide. “
Wolf spiders are “visual hunters,” she said, and will only try to prey on targets smaller than themselves, and they don’t feed on human blood, so they typically don’t have any reason to approach humans.
The original reviewer’s story is particularly fishy because they left similar reviews at Sephora about beauty products attracting spiders, including a nearly identical review for another Sol de Janeiro product in March of this year. In a 2022 review of two different BondiBoost products, chemkats claimed that spiders kept landing on their heads due to the scent of the products.
“Not sure if they’re just trying to have fun or if they actually have a beef with Sol de Janeiro,” one Reddit user wrote in a post warning others to be wary of chemkats. “What? [is] It’s obvious they are trying to spread misinformation…I know it’s funny but I just want to nip it in the bud before it gets bigger. “
But body butter hysteria has spread, with many online — including news outlets — citing Reddit comments about the “pheromone” in the product. In reply to a post asking about body butter, one Reddit user suggested that the chemicals in Sol de Janeiro’s products are also present in spider pheromones, and that the right combination of these compounds “could bring all the thirsty boy spiders to the rescue.” “In your yard”.
The commenter appears to be citing a 2009 paper that identified compounds in the webs of sexually receptive female spiders that suggested “the possible presence of a pheromone component.” The researchers also found that a combination of two identified compounds, farnesyl acetate and cetyl acetate, attracts male spiders. Both compounds are used in cosmetics to add fragrance and texture, but not in viral body butters.
“All of our products, including the new Delícia Drench Body Butter and the upcoming Cheirosa 59 Perfume Mist, do not contain farnesyl acetate or diisobutyl phthalate,” Sol de Janeiro said in an Instagram Story posted on Thursday. esters and cetyl acetate.” “So while they may attract a lot of attention from people, they won’t get the same attention from arachnids (although we love all creatures of the Sun). Hopefully this clears up any concerns , and happy 2024!”
Even if the products do contain the compounds, like many cosmetics, the paper only identified the ingredients in the sex pheromones of the female products of a specific species of spider, Scott said. Pheromones are used by members of the same species to communicate with each other and provide species-specific information such as age, sex, and previous mating experiences.
“Many of the spider pheromones used for sexual communication are short-range and require direct contact, with spiders essentially ‘tasting’ another individual’s silk or body to determine if it is the right one before approaching and attempting to woo and mate. species and sex,” Scott added.
In other words, a compound that attracts one type of spider will not attract another type of spider, such as a wolf spider or a house spider.
“What we are more likely talking about here is a kairosin, which is a semiochemical produced by one species (like an insect pheromone, intended for communication between males and females of that species) and used by another One species (the spider) uses it, and the spider is not the intended recipient of the chemical message,” Scott said.
For example, some wolf spiders use kairomones to avoid larger spiders that might prey on them, or to hunt in areas where there are more prey. Research into the specific compounds that make up tarantula pheromones is limited, but common beauty products are unlikely to send them into a hunting (or mating) frenzy.
This is unfortunate news for those planning to build an army of spiders, such as one Reddit user who asked others to send them unwanted body butter.
“I believe pesticides can be harmful despite the need for them, and spiders are nature’s way of preventing harmful insects from overpopulating!” said the user. “Doing the first part of this project in the winter means I can unleash my army of spiders when the weather is best for them to survive and carry out their duty of killing those damn mosquitoes.”
