tallpines
Pro Member
Posts: 298
Zone:: 4a
Favorite Vegetable:: This week, it’s Rhubarb
Joined: February 2019
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Post by tallpines on Jun 4, 2020 8:04:49 GMT -5
I tend to kill them all.
Are there any spiders found in the garden that are beneficial? What do they look like?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 4, 2020 8:57:43 GMT -5
All spiders are beneficial in the garden - they eat the bugs that eat your plants! Very few spiders can actually hurt you. Many don't bite, and most of the ones that do cause only minor skin irritation. (Of course, a few people are allergic and can have serious reactions to spider bites that are not dangerous to other people.) Only three types of spiders in the U.S. are venomous enough to be of concern: the widow spiders (the black widow is best known, but there are other colors), brown recluse, and hobo: sites.google.com/site/venomousdangerous/spiders/n-america-s-most-venomous-spiders - pictures and information on where they like to live are at the link. My garden/yard is full of small black spiders (NOT black widows - these are small and dull with short legs), plus I get a lot of Wolf spiders, and a few others. Orb Weavers can get BIG, but are not dangerous. They make big, beautiful webs, and are great garden helpers: www.farmersalmanac.com/orb-weaver-spiders-pest-control-65468When a spider is in the way in the garden, I just gently brush them away with a gloved hand or a tool. As for inside spiders I try to catch and release them outside when practical. However, I have yet to see a black widow or brown recluse at my place - I would kill either of those two spiders if I saw them in my house or garden.
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Post by spike on Jun 4, 2020 9:13:14 GMT -5
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tallpines
Pro Member
Posts: 298
Zone:: 4a
Favorite Vegetable:: This week, it’s Rhubarb
Joined: February 2019
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Post by tallpines on Jun 4, 2020 9:24:39 GMT -5
What I am seeing somewhat frequently is a spider that measures about 3/4 in in diameter, including the legs. It is black/grey in color. They all carry a large Snow White, pea sized ball behind them ..... I’m guessing it’s an egg sac.
So .... this must be a good guy?
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jun 4, 2020 10:41:56 GMT -5
I agree with Laura_in_FL - they are beneficial, though I absolutely HATE walking through those webs!
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Post by september on Jun 4, 2020 13:10:41 GMT -5
What I am seeing somewhat frequently is a spider that measures about 3/4 in in diameter, including the legs. It is black/grey in color. They all carry a large Snow White, pea sized ball behind them ..... I’m guessing it’s an egg sac. So .... this must be a good guy? I see many of these along the edges of my raised beds when I weed and disturb their hidey holes. I feel a bit guilty for making them run away carting their precious egg ball with them. I leave them alone. I don't mind spiders.
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Post by bestofour on Jun 4, 2020 14:15:48 GMT -5
I don't kill spiders usually because I don't think they eat garden plants (but I may be wrong). The last couple of years I've had a beautiful green spider that has set her web for squash bugs. I love her.
We do have black widows and they are beautiful, shiny black with a red spot. But I murder them.
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 4, 2020 15:59:24 GMT -5
So .... this must be a good guy? All spiders are good in my opinion and I would never kill one on purpose. If I find one in the house I get it to go onto a piece of paper and I put it outside.
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Post by daylilydude on Jun 5, 2020 5:28:48 GMT -5
I'm the bad guy here... the only good spider is a dead one... been bitten twice by bad ones, brown recluse on my back while camping in a tent, and a black widow on my wrist while pulling weeds out of our flower beds... it sucks and is very painful!
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 5, 2020 7:47:52 GMT -5
I have been stung by bees many times too but I don't want to kill them all.
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Post by octave1 on Jun 5, 2020 8:01:37 GMT -5
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Post by spike on Jun 5, 2020 9:32:27 GMT -5
I have a live and let live attitude. I don't mind spiders inside or out. I am merciless to ants inside my house. I kill them without thought. On the other hand if I ever saw a roach in my house, I would burn my house to the ground with everything inside cause ew!
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Post by september on Jun 6, 2020 8:30:19 GMT -5
Deer flies, horse flies, stable flies and mosquitoes are on my hit list. Luckily we rarely get black flies, and if we do their season is very short here. The rest I don't pay attention to or provoke. Ants in the house get a thumb squish as well. We live in the middle of woods, it's a continual parade of something. I always feel sorry for those big June bugs that you find on their backs wiggling their feet. I always help them up, but probably shouldn't because I think they come from the grubs that the skunks dig holes in our yard to try to find.
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Post by octave1 on Jun 6, 2020 10:45:44 GMT -5
I only kill mosquitos and grub larvae that occasionally come up when I dig. Other than that and, of course, ants in the house, I don't kill or exterminate anything. And I treat spiders with a great deal of respect.
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frank
Junior Member
Posts: 8
Favorite Vegetable:: beets
Joined: April 2020
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Post by frank on Jun 10, 2020 6:43:20 GMT -5
I tend to let spiders alone, they don't bother me in fact I like them. They do often spin their webs across the tops of whatever I'm growing so I just politely wave the webs away and they move on to do it again somewhere.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 24, 2020 9:01:59 GMT -5
This spider traps squash bugs. Love it.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 24, 2020 21:48:19 GMT -5
I taught somebody well! A friend came over today, with her son - the 17 year old, that I tutored with his online math classes (before all these virtual classrooms started!). He loved all the peppers he saw in my garden last year, so he wanted some this year, and I taught him a lot, including the fact that spiders are usually beneficial, and that we rarely see the poisonous ones here. Today, while in the garden, his mom walked through a spider web, and screamed something like "Oooo! It's a spider! Kill it!" But he quickly set her straight, telling her that they are doing good things out there! I didn't realize I had said that much about them to him, or that he was even listening.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 25, 2020 20:33:47 GMT -5
pepperhead212, good for you. I walked through a spider web and did about 20 minutes worth of cardio getting it off my face but I knew better than to kill it.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 26, 2020 14:08:29 GMT -5
Kids listen better than we realize sometimes. Last year my 6 year old granddaughter was asking me why the butterfly that she found was dead. I said that maybe it had a heart attack.
Later I heard her telling her mom that the butterfly had a heart attack. Now when I think of that it seems so funny to think of a butterfly having a heart attack. I don't know why I said that but it seems funny to me now.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 26, 2020 16:00:26 GMT -5
My son actually captured some garden spiders and turned them loose here. We had them for 4 or 5 years after that. He also caught some "Charlotte" spiders and a few have showed up for almost 40 years. Otherwise just have a few wolf spiders on garden patrol.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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