It’s weird how you start noticing spiders everywhere you go. This one is living in our shower — she’s a lovely pale gray and blends in like a delicate little shadow.
You do know if you ever visit, that we tend to tolerate — even encourage — our house spiders, and give them names. Just so you know.
I do not name them but I do not kill them either. They are needed in the house to eat other bugs imo.
I don’t name mine, either.
To me, they are just the good mothers.
That’s why I cannot harm them.
It took a very good mother to raise me.
All good mothers deserve respect.
Almost all the spiders you see, with webs,
Are good mothers. That’s what they do.
They are welcome here.
Also, the maintenance costs are vanishingly small . . .
I have those all over inside and out. their web is a very interesting shape kind of an upside down bowl with lots of “down lines” all around it.
uncle frogy
While I was actually bitten and experienced moderately lower issues from a Brown Recluse spider, I love spiders.
And that, said from one phobic of spiders, after witnessing one, during a move, crawling up mom’s nose.
Today, if your web is out of my way, have a grand hunt! In my way, my cane will move your web, my apologies.
I am always very careful to check my shower cubicle before showering. These “daddy-long-legs” (as we call them in Australia, where they introduced) like the dark recesses of a shower and are instantly killed as the water hits them. I try my best to avoid killing anything – too much death in the world already.
I like spiders in my apartment as long as they don’t build webs in the hall. When they do that, I encourage them to go somewhere else.
Spiders be excellent. I had a small jumping spider appear late last Summer who hung out around the kitchen sink. We got to know each other. Within a few days and some encouragement in the form of tasty flying insect tidbits I caught to pass along to her or him, he or she would readily jump onto my finger and dance about excitedly as if to express an appreciation and (probably) asking for more. That little guy KNEW I was supplying it with the bugs. I called her or him Godzilla. My magnifying glass seemed to show 6 eyes, but it was difficult to tell. He or she was adorable. And intelligent. She or he enjoyed playing games – after some weeks when I approached the sink I would often not see any sign of him or her. Hiding. Intentionally. Crafty little devil. All I had to do was wave my finger slowly along the vicinity of the knick-knacks and Godzilla would leap out of nowhere onto my fingertip, dancing, enjoying the trick. We were great pals for months…until the Winter season severely reduced the available bug population. One day in January, Godzilla just wasn’t there anymore.
It’s a simple rule:
I don’t go into your house. You don’t come into mine.
I live on the river and it’s lovely when one of the big, red, orb spiders decides to set up shop outside my bedroom window. Last year, one made a huge web right in the middle of my porch right during Halloween season and it was amazing. I couldn’t use the porch without disturbing the spider, but it was wonderful and I let her have it. I even turned the porch light on to attract insects.
But if I catch you inside my house, you’ve made the wrong choice.
On the other hand, pholcidae like Ghost are specialist spider killers. I may therefore want to have them in your house. Or not. Or leave them all alone to settle the thing between themselves (my choice).
rrhain:
Makes sense if one knows to what a ‘house’ refers.
(A perfectly fair standard to apply to spiders, according to some)
—
(I get it, you’re territorial)
I have several of these guys in my flat, of the sort that vibrate rapidly in their web when startled (Pholcus phalangioides, I guess? I can’t tell them apart). I really appreciate the job they do with mosquitoes!
Two live in the corner above my desk, and sometimes they’ll scare each other and just sit there wobbling (thus continually rattling the other’s net) until one gets tired.
@9 I have read the same thing about them feeding on other spiders ,to be honest i don’t mind those type of spiders .
I even let them live ,as long as they stay away from me .
I don’t kill them, but unfortunately my cats do.
@anchor #7:
There would have been a fourth pair, very small, each one being about halfway between the lateral and outermost anterior eye (sorry, I’ve forgotten the proper terms).
Personally, I think spiders are cute. I present my evidence:
I dont see many spiders around my house. :( I think its due to all the lizards. We have robust populations of, at least, 4 different species.
@9 I did not know that it might help explain the way the populations of other spiders has fallen in the last few seasons.. they seem to be dominate now they might be very good at catching spiderlings the adults of some would be a more difficult job. The other thing that might be at play is at present I do not have any dogs and only 1 tom cat and the food supply has changed a lot fewer flies.
uncle frogy
I tolerate mine until they start knocking things off the shelves.
nomdeplume @ # 5 – Look closely at your “daddy long-legs”.
I dunno ’bout down there in Oztralia, but up here in Jesustan the critter we call “daddy long-legs” is not a spider, but an insect. That first pair of “forelegs” hardly ever touches the ground (leaf, whatev) – because they’re antennae.
Non-tarantula-and-related spiders typically have a lifespan of a few months.
The name “daddy long-legs” is applied relatively indiscriminately to pholcid spiders, opiliones (non-spider arachnids), and crane flies (insects in the family tipulidae).
Must make reunions awkward.
@19 @20 Yes, I know they are not “real” daddy long legs (which don’t occur here, although crane flies do). Australians made a habit of calling species here by names of look alike but unrelated soecies elsewhere. Our possum for example is nothing to do with opossum (except both being marsupials), magpies are unrelated to English magpies, and so on. The daddy long legs in my bathroom are spiders, not native can’t remember where they originated, perhaps America. Like mice and cockroaches they would travel easily in crates, shipping containers etc and thrive in a new land down under.
The spiderbabies in my hall continue to get bigger and bigger.
https://imgur.com/a/W3pf71e
They’re coming on very nicely.
This is a cellar spider, and she can eventually produce an egg sac that will be of interest to you. There won’t be many eggs, but the silken cover is practically nonexistent and you will be able to clearly see the embryos growing inside the eggs. I know this to be true. Cellar spiders hold their egg sac in their jaws.
I love spiders. A few years back, I found spotted a big, beautiful Garden Spider in the flower bed at a local Culver’s. She (by the size, I’m assuming it was a “she”) was so pretty with patch’s of black, white, and yellow. I think I may have a picture somewhere.
Hey, a cellar spider! Those dudes are pretty chill — they just hang out in their corners and eat.
15 years ago I lived in a basement suite and had the pleasure of sharing my space with Wolf spiders. They don’t spin webs, but instead stalk and pounce on their prey. They are also very large, not quite tarantula sized (I pet-sat one of those once) but getting there. They were large enough that I could hear their footsteps on the linoleum floor.
#25 Yes, I have seen and photographed the eggs with all those little legs inside.
PZ, get up close and really look at Ghost. These spiders are really beautiful. You have to sneak up on them, though; if you startle them, they start to vibrate madly.