Mazda 6 recall: Beware the yellow sac spider and the web it weaves

By Melissa Bell



The yellow sac spider(Alan Moore/ Flickr

In Friday's terrifying news story of the day, a tiny spider's web might crack apart your car engine and start a fire. But only if you have a Mazda 6. And no one has any idea why this is happening.

The news has forced Mazda to recall 65,000 cars in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The spider is the yellow sac spider. Mazda dealers reported 20 cases of webs being found in a vent connected to the fuel tank system. The webs could clog the ventilation system, applying pressure to the fuel tank, which could then crack and cause a fuel leakage. The Associated Press reports:

"Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes said dealers had identified 20 cases in which spider webs were found in the vents. The webs were linked to yellow sac spiders, Barnes said, but it was unclear why they were crawling into the Mazda 6 rather than other vehicles.Adding to the mystery, Barnes said the arachnoid attraction to the sporty cars -- which the company has marketed with its 'zoom-zoom' tagline -- had no specific connection to a particular region of North America."

So Mazda has no idea why this spider likes its cars. As Cynthia Dermody writes at the Stir, "But if these yellow sac spiders are able to wreck entire Mazdas, what kind of damage can they do, are they doing in my house?! To me and my kids while we are sleeping? After they find "cracks" to crawl in and hide, you know, like the crux of my son's arm or my earlobe."

If it makes you feel any better, the yellow sac spider

might have potentially deadly webs, but it won't bite you to death. It'll just bite you a little.

Where's John Goodman when you need him?