Spiders, enemy or ally, strike such an emotional~ and frankly, completely irrational~ response from people (I know.  A few years back, I was one of those people).  The truth is, spiders are an asset to most anyone interested in a healthier environment.

For the record, spiders are a great ally to us humans.  Granted, that’s unless they bite you, then I’m sure you feel a little differently.  But remember, spiders don’t come looking for the tantalizing taste of fresh human meat, so if you get bit, that spider felt trapped.  And no, I’ve yet to wake up with a giant one on my face, and yes, that would scare me.  But remember Charlotte?  And Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends?  And Ms. Spider on the Giant Peach?

Here in NC, the only justified fear we may have is of the notorious Black Widow.  Believe it or not, in my (almost) 28 years, I’ve yet to meet a Black Widow face-to-face.

Brown recluse shmown recluse.  Though you may encounter a brown recluse in NC, the odds are slim, as they are only common in the mid-west (see this from the NC Cooperative Extension).  We are not mid-west, in case you haven’t seen a map in a while.  We are mid-Atlantic.

Just like my honeybees unfairly getting so much flak for all of people’s wasps grievances, perfectly ordinary and happy spiders get a tremendously bad reputation~ and all merely by being brown.  Many many NC spiders are brown… only one out of many thousands are a recluse.

Check out this, by Arwin, who points out:

Myth: Spiders in the home are a danger to children and pets.

Fact: House spiders prey on insects and other small creatures. They are not bloodsuckers, and have no reason to bite a human or any other animal too large for them to eat. In any interaction between spiders and larger creatures like humans, the spiders are almost always the ones to suffer.

For the North Carolina gardener, however, spiders are the single best and most natural pesticide.  Spiders don’t eat your plants… they eat those nasty mites that come to destroy your plants!  In fact, the day you till your garden and you don’t see spiders (and ladybugs), you can rest assured you do not have a healthy environment~ and that whatever has run off signs of creatures is also destroying the insides of your plants (warning~ don’t consume pesticide-washed produce, even from your own garden).  Howard Lyman has a lot of great insight on this in his book.

As for those spiders hanging around the awnings of your house or near your gutters?  Those guys certainly aren’t hurting you.  They’re enjoying the view from the home they’ve built, and all while they munch on the pesky little insects (mosquitos and flies, for instance) that are so desperate to come into your home when you open your door!

I always get a remembrance from James and the Giant Peach (or something like that) when I think of people’s irrational, unbiased and unfair hatred of spiders, where the spider says he saw his eight-legged aunt get painted to a ceiling because the homeowner hated spiders… She didn’t die, but she was stuck there for the rest of her days, and the spider family came frequently to bring her food and spend time with her.  The spider said it always hurt him how people so misunderstood and feared his kind.  It always broke my heart~ I’m such a sap sometimes!

Maybe think twice before you smoosh that spider next time.  I usually grab a cup and posterboard-typed paper, catch it, and return it outside.  They’ll get more food outside anyhow~ AND save me from as many bird-flu carrying mosquitos (wink).