Ah, spiders. We love to hate them.

Yes: Walking into a spiderweb is creepy. But why is it so easy for us to walk into one in the first place? Do spiders purposely build their webs near humans?

In a post in Reddit’s science community, user Tashre asked: “Do spiders ever do any scouting first, or do they just throw up a web and hope for the best?”

The short answer? Yes, of course some spiders scout!

Bradford Hawkins, Ph.D, a University of California, Irvine biologist told Upvoted why this is evolutionary advantageous:

“The general rule of life is that stupid animals don’t last long, and predators have to be particularly clever. You don’t have to be too smart to find and eat grass (although you do have to have enough smarts not to walk up to something that will eat you), but when your food can run, hide and/or fight back you can’t just stumble around hoping for the best.”

(Question: Was Hawkins throwing shade at… cows?)

One example of a resourceful little spider is the bridge orb-weaver:

Bridge orb-weavers on a building (Sean McCann/Ibycter.com)

These nocturnal creatures are typically found in the Northern American States and Europe, University of Toronto Scarborough arachnologist, Catherine Scott, told Upvoted.

And these clever orb-weavers definitely take advantage of human inventions. Insects—as we all know—are attracted to lights. In order to catch more prey, orb-weavers prefer to build webs near artificial light sources, according to a study in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. This is a brilliant tactic.

And—as their name implies—bridge orb-weavers are typically found on bridges, so that they can capture aquatic insects. Interestingly, the webs are only temporary death traps. Some orb-weavers build new webs everyday.

“These spiders are actually able to recycle their silk by eating their webs as they dismantle them, then incorporating the silk proteins into their new webs,” explains Scott.

The universally feared and ferocious western black widow, on the other hand, has a much more boring lifestyle. They typically stay in the same web their entire lives, repairing it if it gets destroyed.

Western black widow (Sean McCann/Ibycter.com)

Black widows scout for sites using chemical cues that detect prey. In one study, black widows preferred to build webs in areas where crickets previously inhabited. They can sort of “smell” the prey, says Scott.