I acknowledge the goodness of spiders (though they seem to do a lousy job of pest control around here), but if spiders are more afraid of people than people are of spiders, why do I keep finding them crawling on me? They really don’t seem to be trying to avoid contact.
Yeah. I already knew all this. Doesn’t stop me from being badly arachnophobic. But I don’t kill spiders. When I find webs or even spiders in my home, I know that I have a bug problem. So, I figure out what the bug problem is, take care of that, and the spiders move themselves out to find new feeding grounds.
Spiders are the good guys. Still terrifying to me, unfortunately, but good guys nonetheless. I would just prefer that they don’t have anything to eat where I’m living, so they don’t feel a need to move in.
Ridana says
I acknowledge the goodness of spiders (though they seem to do a lousy job of pest control around here), but if spiders are more afraid of people than people are of spiders, why do I keep finding them crawling on me? They really don’t seem to be trying to avoid contact.
Nathan says
Yeah. I already knew all this. Doesn’t stop me from being badly arachnophobic. But I don’t kill spiders. When I find webs or even spiders in my home, I know that I have a bug problem. So, I figure out what the bug problem is, take care of that, and the spiders move themselves out to find new feeding grounds.
Spiders are the good guys. Still terrifying to me, unfortunately, but good guys nonetheless. I would just prefer that they don’t have anything to eat where I’m living, so they don’t feel a need to move in.
Jonathan Norburg says
Cute. I like it.
JimB says
Hey PZ,
Have you seen this: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/spiders-can-fly-hundreds-of-miles-using-electricity
They’re looking for some biologists…