Skincare lovers are having a problem—one of their creams is allegedly attracting wolf spiders.
The discussion around this issue appears to stem from a Reddit post on r/Sephora. In the post, titled “These reviews are getting out of control,” Redditor u/andreaclc posts a screenshot taken from a review for Delícia Drench Body Butter, which is produced by a company called Sol de Janeiro.
“If you’re scared of wolf spiders- watch out for these lotions lol,” the review reads in part, which can be found on the item’s listing. Later, the reviewer adds, “Normally I’ll see one every like 3 years, used this and it was every day. I stopped using it and haven’t seen one since.”
In the comments section, one user attempted to verify this information by putting the Delícia Drench Body Butter on a piece of tissue paper.
“Spiders went to the tissue paper,” user heyitsjustchoco reported. “I think they are attracted to the pheromones of the cream.” The user later added a different cream from Cerave to a different piece of tissue paper, which they said did not produce the same effect.
“I have seen 8 spiders, we rarely have spiders at work,” the user detailed. “No spiders seemed interested in the cerave cream.”
This information was later shared by X (formerly Twitter) user Samantha Ruddy, who brought more mainstream attention to the post.
Others began pointing out further comments in the thread, including one that claimed that there may be a chemical reason why the cream appeared to be attracting so many spiders.
The debate soon spilled over onto TikTok, with a PSA TikTok slideshow garnering over 6.6 million views in just a few days. One user commented they “started getting bit a lot after using it.”
So, is this true? It seems that it’s not. The company took to Instagram to counter these specific claims, writing in a story post, “All of our products, including our new Delicia Drench Body Butter and upcoming Cheirosa 59 Perfume Mist are free from farnesyl acetate, diisobutyl phthalate, and hexadecyl acetate.”
“So while they may attract a lot of attention from people, they won’t from arachnids (even though we love all creatures at Sol de Janeiro),” the statement continued, as noted by the New York Times.
The New York Times piece goes on to quote experts who claim that it is unlikely the product would actually produce this effect on spiders.
“It is HIGHLY unlikely that the skin cream company through random chance combined enough things in just the right proportion to mimic a spider compound,” wrote Floyd W. Shockley, the chair of the Entomology Collections Committee at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
“What is more likely, given the time of year that all of this is happening, is that people are simply noticing more Wolf spiders indoors than usual because outside temperatures have dropped below the level they are comfortable in,” Shockley continued, quoted by the New York Times. “Wolf spiders prefer to hunt and live outdoors, but when it gets cold they come indoors to overwinter, thus increasing the likelihood of a spider-human interaction.”
In summary, if you have this cream, it appears that you’re safe to keep using it without attracting wolf spiders.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sol de Janeiro via website contact form and Sephora via email.
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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/sephora-cream-wolf-spiders/