I didn't think you were being offencive at all KLS. I did not try the Tarantulas. There isn't enough mass to them. Rubber seems to make sense. The principle is to divert the energy in the string and use it by having the rubber vibrate. Cloth just does not need much energy to vibrate. On Trad bows the non-rubber silencers sit closer to the center and simply slow down the vibration freqency of the string via air resistance. The theory behind cat whiskers is to acutally change the dimentions of the rubber to eat up energy. Much like a rubber stabilizer on a compound bow or a rubber end stop on a door stop or a bumper rubber on car. The rubber "eats" vibration or energy. The other thing it does is add weight to the string to change the vibrational frequency. In the automotive field they put weights with rubber between an car part and the weight to snub vibration or change it's fequency. Same thinking in my noggin!
I've seen the rubber Tarantulas as well but they are way too big and thick and I couldn't begin to figure out how to serve them on. Aside from that I think it would make tons of noise slapping against the limbs. I am betting they'd fly off too!