If approached carefully enough, it is possible to tease Trapdoor Spiders into attacking inanimate objects, as I did here with a piece of straw. The sheer speed at which they lunge from their burrows is lightning-fast. Any insects that are unfortunate enough to come within striking range are drug underground in the blink of an eye. However, as in the case of this photo, Myrmekiaphila will momentarily pause when they attack something that turns out not being what they were expecting. But it never takes long for them to figure out when they've been tricked - and as soon as they do, they are gone just as quickly as they came.