I used to be deathly afraid of spiders. When I was a kid I would run out of my room if I saw one and beg my father to come and kill it for me. But my fear has been completely turned around and I now see spiders as the most beneficial pest controlling animals that they are.
It started one day while hiking somewhere in the Sierras with some friends. When we stopped for a rest I was lucky to settle into a spot where, as I sat back, I could observe a tiny spider spinning its web. Watching this process astounded me and I came away thinking “how could I ever be afraid of these animals who naturally express such beauty, grace, and intelligence”! In fact, studies and experiments have shown that the fear of spiders and snakes is learned, there is no evolutionary reason for us to despise them.
Spiders play a very important role in the ecology and so in our gardens and landscapes. They mostly eat insects. They play the role of keeping insect populations from becoming overly dominant and destructive. They in turn are food for other spiders, birds, small mammals, lizards, toads, and frogs. Spiders eat aphids, leafhoppers, leafminers, spider mites, thrips, cucumber beetles, grasshoppers, flies, and caterpillars in our gardens. Using insect sprays is detrimental to the spiders.
They even do some pest control in your house, eating ants, flies, cockroaches. There are estimates that the average house has up to 200 spiders living in it. That may sound scary, but if they were not there, you would have many more insects to contend with.
There are upwards of 4,000 species of spiders in North America. Just to review, spiders have eight legs and two body parts- a cepalothorax (like a head-chest) and an abdomen. They usually have four spinerets for their silk production under the abdomen. Their silk is the strongest and most elastic of all natural fibers! There are industries trying to harness this substance to put to human use. Most have eight eyes but some have up to 12 while some have none! Some spiders that are pretty common to observe around here are the wolf spiders, the black and yellow garden spiders, also called orb spiders, crab spiders, and jumping spiders.
One of my favorites is the jumping spiders. They hunt by pouncing and they can leap about 50 times their body length. They use their silk as a tether in case they miss their target so they can get back to where they started. They also use their silk to make a little pup tent to sleep in at night, seek shelter in bad weather, build and store their egg cases, and overwinter in. What I have enjoyed about them is that they seem to make eye contact with us and they follow our movements with their whole body. They are cute, black, fuzzy things, with pieces of blue on their faces looking like they have blue eyes.
In late summer into fall the black and yellow garden spider, or orb spider, is a common sight. Using taller plants, they weave a large, circular web. First they weave their web, then they go over most of it with a super-glue like silk to catch their prey. When there is a catch in the web the orb spiders are able to decipher whether it’s a real catch or just a breeze or a plant brushing it from the kind of vibration it makes. You may be able to observe the orb spider in the middle of its web vibrating dramatically. This is to look large and scare off a predator, kind of like what we’re supposed to do if we meet up with a bear or mountain lion. See Ask Smithsonian: How do Spiders Build Their Web? online, and you can watch a short video and read a lot more interesting information.
You’ll most likely find a crab spider on a flower petal, often a white or a yellow one. These are the chameleons in the spider world. They can change their color to match their petal they’re hanging out on so they can be disguised as they wait to ambush their prey, using a strand of silk tether in case they fall off their flower petal. They have flattened bodies and large front legs giving them a crab-like appearance. They even walk sideways like a crab.
I’m always careful not to rake up or step on the wolf spiders. These are ground dwellers. They have good vision and hunt in the day and in the night by roaming around. They use their silks to cast off from a higher spot to disperse in the breeze. These spiders like to hang out under organic mulches. You can often see the mothers carrying what looks like a tiny golf ball around, white or bluish, as they scurry to safety when you are working with soil. Let them get to safety and you will allow them to be your primary defense in insect control. When those little spiderlings hatch the mother carries them around on her back until they’re big enough to fend for themselves. This makes the wolf spider look big and fluffy. At night when walking around with a flashlight you may see two tiny glowing eyes, these are the wolf spiders.
If you have ever seen a spider egg the size of a quail’s egg hanging from the eaves, then you have the bolas spider. We have one native to California. The method of hunting this one exhibits is perhaps the most amazing! It uses chemical deception to lure and catch its prey. Please look this one up online; if you type in ‘bolas spider catching prey’ you can watch a few short videos with lots of information to read.
Most spiders do have venom, that’s how they eat their prey. Spiders really don’t want to bite us, we are too huge to them and most of them can’t bite into our skin. Black widows, which do live here, are probably the most dangerous, but they only bite if you accidentally perturb them. It’s best to wear gloves when working around the places where they live. A trip to the hospital may well be in order, but nobody has died of a black widow spider bite in the last ten years. The spiders are reclusive and most often do not inject any venom. Still, precaution is very wise.
Brown recluse spiders are often thought to be the culprit of a skin problem, or something to fear. But they do not live here. They live in the central and southern U.S. There has been much misinformation surrounding these spiders, to the extent that medical schools have ended up teaching that misinformation, which can lead to misdiagnosis of something else needing attention. The UCR Spiders Site online has a lot of information on the brown recluse.
Remember that spider fear is learned. Also remember that spiders are a key link in a balanced ecosystem, and are especially useful to our gardens and landscapes. I have gone from all out fear to all out fascination with these animals.