Story highlights Researchers calculate how many tons the world's spiders consume

Spiders are all carnivores and can be found in very inhospitable environments

(CNN) The next time you see a spider crawling around your house, look at the bright side. It's probably feasting on a bunch of other insects and providing you with free pest control.

A new study released on Tuesday says that spiders eat an estimated 400 to 800 million metric tons of insects every year .

For comparison, the entire human population consumes about 400 million tons of meat and fish every year.

"Our estimates for spiders appear to be of the same order of magnitude as the prey kill by whales in the world's oceans which has been estimated to be in the range of 280-500 million tons annually," wrote the authors in The Science of Nature

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The eight-legged carnivores eat an astounding amount, highlighting their natural role in getting rid of pests and insects that transmit diseases or parasites.

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