Researchers used data from 65 existing studies to estimate that the Earth is home to 25 million metric tons of spiders. They then applied that number to the amount of food spiders need to consume for survival. Their findings, published in journal The Science of Nature, that the total spider population eats up to 800 million metric tons of animal prey annually.

To put that number in perspective, researchers compared the spiders’ smorgasbord to the amount of prey consumed by other, much larger species. Spiders fall in “the same order of magnitude” as whales, which eat 280-500 million tons per year, the researchers write in the study. Spiders may also exceed humans’ total animal consumption, which tallies to about 400 tons of meat and fish annually.