Spiders: Why I Love Them

It seems even some of the more environmentally minded people are still squeamish around spiders. Although I'm not, I have to admit they can be somewhat intimidating with eight legs and the ability to snare  their prey with high-quality death traps of sticky silk; well, some of them anyway.

I know even the most arachnophobic people out there have heard either "They're more scared of you than you are of them" or "Oh, but they're soooo beneficial." And most of those arachnophobic people, no matter how severe the fear, believe it deep down in their heart but just can't seem to appreciate these eight-legged predators.

Few creatures have had to endure the horrible reputations caused by stories and tall-tales like spiders; wolves and snakes may be the only other two that are in the same category. Horror stories of massive spiders in toilets, faint-causing photographs of bites and of course the Hollywood machine have all put images in our heads of spiders with fangs the size of steak knives readily hunting us as their next meal.


As someone reluctant to kill anything or use pesticides of any sort, people often look at me as if I'm insane when they see a spider in my home and I grab their hand to stop them from smashing it. These creatures truly are amazing and I relish having a few in my home from time to time. Don't get me wrong, I don't readily collect spiders from their outdoor habitats to bring them in, but they do come in willingly depending on the season.

In my home I currently (and throughout the year) have 4 types of spider in my home: Wolf spiders; sac spiders; cellar spiders; and American house spiders. I've never seen the American house spiders, I must admit, but they're here. I can tell by the unruly webs in my corners that collect dust. The wolf spiders and sac spiders are among my favorites. Sac spiders, especially.

I love these guys because I really don't have other bugs in my home, besides house centipedes (another killer of things people detest) and house flies. I wouldn't have the house flies if I could somehow coax a large orbweaver into my home to build a massive, beautiful web every night and catch them.

I also love the spiders who prefer to stay outside of my home, although, admittedly, I wish a couple of them would move a little closer to our outdoor living areas. Sadly, even with our deck and the front stoop, we really don't have an ideal place for my large orbweavers to build their webs.

Among spiders, the orbweavers are often the kings and queens of catching flying pests. The black-and-yellow argiope -- my all-time favorite -- is a master of building large, beautiful webs in sunny locations. Moths, flies, mosquitoes, the occasional wasp and butterfly, and other insects become ensnarled in their webs.

I wish more people shared my enthusiasm for these masters of the class Arachnida. So before you quickly kill a spider, please take the time to identify it and release it outside if you can't stand it in your home. I'll even give you a reference: The University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web classification page of the order Aranea so you can check out how awesome these guys really are!