The idea below is a bit misleading. Most spiders don’t favor garages — garages aren’t great environments for most flying insects. Orb weavers don’t care much for buildings, for instance.
Yes, I’m being overly pedantic.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Not sure about garages, but the viaduct on my bike route (highway going over a river, bike path alongside the river underneath the highway) was like Shelob’s cave in LOTR at one point. Easily 100m3 of solid spiderweb.
it got cleared at some point, probably because it was a very popular walking/cycling route… shame tbh…
Orb weavers love verandahs, car ports, window shades, in Australia. Sadly their numbers are greatly reduced in this part of Australia in recent years – my theory is the decline was caused by the massive fires of 2019-20, with smoke particles in the air for months.
Spiders in the house were a no-go for most of my adult life. Now, thanks to PZ and his blog, I worry the little critters are getting enough to eat. Maybe they’re snacking on dust mites?
There’s been a series of spiders who’ve lived behind the toilet in my bathroom. I call all of them Fred. I have no idea what they eat, but there has been a Fred there almost continuously as long as I’ve lived in this apartment, so I suppose they must have some sort of reliable food source.
Barns and human habitation has also been great for rodents – I do not find the article, but traces of rodents were found at very early European neolithic settlements.
It is not surprising that humans and felis catus soon started a symbiotic relationship. If only the gecko had been a more effective mosquito hunter, it might have joined cats as human symbionts.
Gather human homes generally don’t provide sufficient food for many arachnid species? Certainly for Huntsmen spiders (Sparassidae – formerly Heteropodidae) here.
StevoR, clickety-click is a thing.
https://www.earthkind.com/blog/what-do-spiders-eat-the-diet-of-a-common-house-spider/