Organisms may secrete bioadhesives for use in attachment, construction and obstruction, as well as in predation and defense. Examples include their use for:
* Colonization of surfaces (e.g. bacteria, algae, fungi, mussels, barnacles, rotifers)
* Mussel's byssal threads
* Tube building by polychaete worms, which live in underwater mounds
* Insect egg, larval or pupal attachment to surfaces (vegetation, rocks), and insect mating plugs
* Host attachment by blood-feeding ticks
* Nest-building by some insects, and also by some fish (e.g. the three-spined stickleback)
* Defense by Notaden frogs and by sea cucumbers
* Prey capture in spider webs and by velvet worms
Some bioadhesives are very strong. For example, adult barnacles achieve pull-off forces as high as 2 MPa (2 N/mm). A similarly strong, rapidly adhering glue - which contains 171 different proteins and can adhere to wet, moist and impure surfaces - is produced by the very hard limpet species Patella vulgata; this adhesive material is a very interesting subject of research in the development of surgical adhesives and several other applications. Silk dope can also be used as a glue by arachnids and insects.