Spiders - Do you allow them or not?

[Iowa newbie]

Indoors, I have a really tough time keeping spiders around, the wolf ones that are fast and smaller ones seem harmless. I do have some scale insects on my ports, and some mites on my ficus. So, I'm wondering is it beneficial to keep these guys around, I almost never mess with them when they are on the outdoor trees though.

 

[Japonicus]

the wolf ones that are fast

We had an infestation of wolf spiders where I grew up.
Things were like tarantulas to me but terribly fast indeed. In our basement, garage, outdoors ug.
Yes they are fast.

I spray my plants about 4 times/yr so I usually don't have many little creepy crawlers to deal with.
If I'm working on a tree and one drops down...sorry spider lovers...other than that they stay.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Good question. I let them be until their webs get unsightly.

 

[hinmo24t]

I keep most around except the big wolfs because my dog eats bugs often. The wolfs are usually outside and I have smaller ones keeping patrol on my plants

 

[cockroach]

I leave them until I prune. The graze the mozzies that annihilate my ankles and arms.

 

[leatherback]

I live in an old farmhouse, ceilings 10ft tall. Spiders live in our house. Other bugs do not

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I don't have enough spiders in my home.
The ones that are there are too lazy to hunt.

Sometimes it feels like I'm raising free range organic mosquitos.

 

[leatherback]

Sometimes it feels like I'm raising free range organic mosquitos.

I hear certification is a bitch for those.

 

[coachspinks]

I live in an old farmhouse, ceilings 10ft tall. Spiders live in our house. Other bugs do not

When I was young we sometimes lived with my relatives in southern Germany. This was in the 60's and 70's. The property was a farm and the main house was 600+ years old. I remember there being an endless number of spiders in and around the house.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Spiders don’t eat my plants... but they DO eat things that DO eat my plants.. unless they are brown recluse, hobo, or wolf spider.. they stay. (On my trees)

 

[Iowa newbie]

Does anybody worry about the ones who you might leave around and a week or two later they have 1000 babies crawling on their backs? Those ones are straight out of a nightmare.

 

[hinmo24t]

Does anybody worry about the ones who you might leave around and a week or two later they have 1000 babies crawling on their backs? Those ones are straight out of a nightmare.

for all the times i have seen those in my garage and elsewhere carrying eggs or egg sacks around or w.e.), i never correlated those with soonafter witnessing x100 or anything. i think a lot of them dont make it, maybe 10% (like sea turtles) so its just easy to assume youll be inundated by them but it doesnt work out like that.

just my theory

 

[HorseloverFat]

I ONCE, years ago was attempting to relocate a recently purchased/shipped cactus.... aaaand my thumb went THROUGH the cactus... aaaand out came HUNDREDS of tiny, shiny, black (but SOMEHOW translucent) “balls” With legs!

REAL “heebie-jeebie” material.

 

[hinmo24t]

I ONCE, years ago was attempting to relocate a recently purchased/shipped cactus.... aaaand my thumb went THROUGH the cactus... aaaand out came HUNDREDS of tiny, shiny, black (but SOMEHOW translucent) “balls” With legs!

REAL “heebie-jeebie” material.

black widows like cactus i think, but i could be wrong. the babies wouldnt hurt ya i dont think. i think an adult can take a hit from a mature black widow and be okay as well. creepy though lol

 

[Njyamadori]

No definitely not ! It ruins what the trees look like and I think some can harm the trees. I think bonsai more of an art than gardening

 

[HorseloverFat]

black widows like cactus i think, but i could be wrong. the babies wouldnt hurt ya i dont think. i think an adult can take a hit from a mature black widow and be okay as well. creepy though lol

Heck yeah! I was born in Portsmouth,Virginia. So I was taught a healthy respect for “shiny black dots” fairly early.

Normally, around here.. the worse you can get is nasty abscesses.. the recluse being a seemingly infinite degradation.. whereas wolf spider “ball-fang” (literally ) bites I’ve seen... abscess to about a half-dollar...

 

[Njyamadori]

I ONCE, years ago was attempting to relocate a recently purchased/shipped cactus.... aaaand my thumb went THROUGH the cactus... aaaand out came HUNDREDS of tiny, shiny, black (but SOMEHOW translucent) “balls” With legs!

REAL “heebie-jeebie” material.

Eww lol . It reminds me of like superhero movies like The guy in Spider-Man that’s the villain

 

[HorseloverFat]

Eww lol . It reminds me of like superhero movies like The guy in Spider-Man that’s the villain

Eric Foreman!?

 

[Forsoothe!]

Live with them or kill them all and everything they eat. Personal standards apply.

 

[sorce]

They're not going to help with scale or mites and may eat what could them.

Still wouldn't kill em though, but certainly address the pest problem.

Sorce