Spiders

I’ve long believed that one of the main distinguishing characteristics between city and county folks is their tolerance level for spiders. I have a vague memory of being squeamish about them when I first came to spend summers on my Aunt and Uncle’s farm, but I quickly got over it. Here on our farm we are surrounded by them–inside the house and out–and for the most part I rarely give them a second thought.  

Webs new and old cover our eaves, gutters, downspouts and the corners of most of the windows on our houses exterior. And nearly all of the trees and shrubs have webs of various sizes and shapes which become conspicuous when they are dotted with droplets of water on these moist, foggy mornings. Spiders even take up residency in our vehicles, often behind the side-view mirrors and in the defrost vents where the windshield meets the dashboard. Once when we were traveling on the highway in a minivan that we had long ago, a yellow jacket that was trapped inside started flying in frantic circles about our heads. I was on the verge of pulling over to let it out when it suddenly became entangled in a web on the dashboard. I was amazed to see a huge spider dart out and stun the yellow jacket. In short order it had it neatly wrapped up and dragged it back to it’s home in the heater vent. It would have been interesting trying to explain that one to a CHP officer had I been pulled over for “distracted driving”.  

About the only spider that can do humans harm around here is the black widow which for the most part minds its own business in the dark, dry corners of our storage areas. One exception was one year during the drought, when we started seeing them in some very unlikely places. That fall we had a pumpkin patch for CSA members and when we went to trim the pumpkins from their vines and put them in windrows, we noticed that nearly every pumpkin had a black widow living beneath it–something I had never seen before or since. Needless to say, I made an exception to my general rule to leave spiders alone on that occasion. I can only imagine that humidity is a major limiting factor in where black widows can live, and since we had received almost no rainfall the previous winter, they greatly expanded their range. 

After two years of decent rainfall the black widows have retreated back to their corners and my benevolent attitude toward spiders has been restored. For the most part, I am happy to have them around. Because they are very sensitive to pesticides and other chemicals, I like to think of them as an indicator of a healthy environment. And all spiders are first-rate predators–helping to control nuisance pests like flys, gnats and mosquitoes as well as serious farm pests. During one of the University strawberry trials that we participated in, researchers were surprised at the important roll that spiders had in helping to control lygus bugs–a serious pest in strawberries.