Battle of The Arachnids

Fighting spiders is one of the all-time favourite pastimes of the boys and male adults in the past. This was shown in a television series on Channel 5 local television channel in the recent years called “Fighting Spider”. The trend started in the early 1960s within the rural times of Singapore. Boys would go around looking for male fighting spiders (Thiania Bhamoens is called fighting spiders within the Southeast Asia) which hide in the hedges inside long leaves ideally in cool quiet locations with very little human activities or traffic. The boys can catch these spiders and place it into matchboxes and produce it to contend with their friend’s spiders. But, before that they are going to make sure the gender of the spiders, as feminine spiders are not smart for fighting, the males are far more aggressive and territorial that in scientific terms agnostic behaviour. So, in physical comparison, females have larger abdomens, shorter legs and the look is duller. little items of leaves and a drop of water square measure placed into the matchboxes furthermore to form the spiders comfy and their natural home atmosphere. To train smart fighting spiders, the boys tend to follow some ‘champion training’ guide which range from their diet.
As for the ‘champion training’ diet, the spiders are fed with smaller specimens of comparable species to ignite their cannibalistic behaviours creating the spiders extra aggressive and improved fighters. Also, a couple of droplets of water to keep the spiders hydrated.
“The best breed of fighting spiders to catch was the nearly black ones that were far more aggressive. I have a tendency to typically starve the spiders for about 1-2 days and fed them bedbugs or fruit flies right before the match to get them all pumped up” said Mr Bala who has been into this hobby for the past 14 years.
Mr Bala took this as a hobby when he started seeing his elder brother have spider duels with his friends. “The intensity of the fight was very thrilling and always kept me excited on which spider might win. I feel proud when my smaller spider wins the bigger one. It reflects my hard work and training I did on my spiders,” said Mr Bala.
To make them fight, two people can bring their spiders along and face one another, a kind of ritualistic dance happens with both spiders circling one another with their front legs or arms locking up against one another in a very push and pull motion. The loser of the fight is the one that scrambles away or the spider that dies. The winner can receive the opponent’s spider as a kind of reward for winning. However, adults would bet with real cash on fighting spiders that is prohibited in contrast to the kids’ approach of playing.
This sport was one of the most favourite pastimes in schools during those days where kids will go outdoors to catch spiders under the sun. Nowadays these kind of activities are rare because kids prefer to twiddle with their iPhones and iPads indoors due to the advance in technology compared to those days.