Once again, I have a spider hanging beneath the backsplash of my kitchen sink. This happened 2 years ago and the spider was there from October until nearly April, I believe.

It’s hard  to believe, but I was once a huge arachnaphobe.  All you had to do was to mention the word “spider” and it would raise goose bumps on my arms.

But since I became a gardener–and a serious organic gardener at that–I know that spiders are the good guys in the garden. So I definitely always leave them alone outside.

I also tend to leave them alone in the house so long as I know where they are. I have a few exceptions to that rule. No spiders in the bedroom–but we tend to have few of those anyway, thank goodness.

And of course, I always give my “house” spiders a firm talking to. I tell them that so long as I know where they are and they are not in a spot where they are bothering me, they can stay. If, for some reason, that changes, I will have to squash them like a bug.

And most of the spiders behave nicely. Every so often, one runs across the stove or something while I am cooking and sadly, that one has to go. But those are very few and far between.

They say that spiders can even hear the vibrations from our feet when we walk into a room. I don’t doubt that. And if that’s so, why can’t they “hear” my little lecture?

All I know is that I have very little trouble with “misbehaving” spiders. And that suits me just fine!

 

This is a spider that’s been hanging out in my kitchen, behind the sink, for about a month or so.

You can see that despite its size, it’s quite the hunter. It’s got some sort of roly-poly in its web, and beneath the web are all manner of tiny bugs, some with wings. When I get too disgusted, I sweep them all up.

This doesn’t seem to be one of the spiders that wraps the bugs up and stores them for future consumption. I have one of those on my porch so I can see the difference.

I live with a good number of spiders–actually, everyone does, supposedly, unless you’re using bug killers around the home. If you’re living with spiders, though, you can see that they can be pretty efficient bug killers on their own.

And yes, there is the argument that spiders bite and spider bites can cause all sorts of harm. But for the most part, the few biting spiders that we have do NOT hang around out in the open like this–that’s the trouble. They lurk in dark places which is how they get nicknames like recluse.

So since my house is a known spider habitat I just take precautions. I shake out everything before I put it on. I bang my shoes together before I put my feet into them. And I leave little guys like this alone to tidy up.

One other myth debunked. For the most part, house spiders are pretty much just that. They like to live indoors and they are found in kitchens and bathrooms a lot because those are reliable water sources. So no need to put them outside. Their habitat is the house.

According to all the spider web sites, we do not have these types of spiders in Connecticut.  Oh really?

The other night I was working on the computer in my den and something caught my eye.  I looked up to see this monster swinging wildly back and forth across the window frame, building her web.  It took her two nights to get her web situated–and every night at dusk, she swings into view from somewhere, swings up and down a bit, perhaps making repairs from the day,and then settles into the middle.

This is a cross spider, a type of european garden orb weaver–and my, can she build a large web!  Many of these spiders start out quite small and then get progressively larger as the season goes on–but it is unusual to see one this large this early in the season.  They do not over-winter here.

Her web is across most of the side window of a bay window with two casement side windows.  The window is probably at least 3′ tall by 18″ wide so we’re talking a serious web here!

Most of my other cross spiders are a more reasonable size–and this year they are just everywhere in the yard.  Probably the mild winter led to more eggs surviving to hatch.  By the end of the summer–and well into autumn if we have a mild autumn–some of them will reach her size, I have no doubt.

And I am not just being “pro-female” when I refer to spiders as “shes.”  In spiders, the females are always larger and more colorful–and quite often, after mating, the male is eaten!  So most often the colorful spiders I feature are the females!

One of the reasons I enjoy these spiders (the small ones anyway.  When I was a kid we called these large ones “Mongol” spiders for some reason–I still do colloquially) is that the little ones try to make themselves seem big to predators (and me if I’m near) by bouncing up and down in their webs so fast that all you see it’s a blur.  It’s a really funny effect–I didn’t know what it was the first time I saw it.

Here’s another guy that doesn’t like to pose–the grass spider.  This is a spider known as a funnel web weaver.  You can’t really see any of the funnels in these webs–they look more like sheets in the webs this spider has.  As summer goes on, the funnels usually get more pronounced.  And then again, this isn’t the optimal spot for a funnel.

These spiders can also get quite large–almost as large as a golf ball (including their legs).  They also get a bit aggressive if challenged, sometimes standing on the hind pairs of legs.  But they are harmless and a”good” bug, keeping the lawn and stone wall free of moths and other insects.