Spiders are
people too. Well…if we disregard the six
extra legs, the fact that their bones are on the outside of their bodies and
they live on insect guts…okay, they’re NOT people. But with a little education maybe we humans
can get over our irrational phobia of creepy-crawly things and we could offer
the spider some respect.
I was raised
to respect the spider. Not by my
parents, but by my big brother Jim.
Nearly a decade my senior, Jim is a natural-born teacher. You’d never find him in a classroom, though,
because he is too shy. And regular
teachers have to teach ordinary stuff and Jim loves to talk about the
extraordinary. My childhood was filled
with hours of ‘lessons’ ranging from the best rock and roll bands, creatures large
and small/cute and creepy, to the human history of ancient torture methods.
For whatever reason, Jim had a special affection for spiders. Upon
entering his bedroom you would see shoeboxes lining his shelves and
dresser. A closer look at each box would reveal a little spider habitat protected by a stretched out piece of cellophane, a
perfect window for viewing. He kept a
variety of spiders to observe and feed.
I was often enlisted to collect live food for these eight legged
beauties.
I would watch in fascination as the
orb-weaving garden spider would prance out to the edge of her web to tackle
and wrap-up a fly to save for a later meal. Who needs tupperware? When hungry, she would inject the mummified fly to liquefy its innards, and then
delicately sip her bug smoothie for dinner.
My favorite was a fellow named
Wolfgang. He was the kind we often call
a wolf spider, but was more likely a common house spider. Wolfgang was a hunter rather than a
web-weaver, meaning he stalked his prey, captured it on the move and brought it
back to his lair for a feast. Wolfie
favored a small matchbox in his habitat, with the drawer slid part way open, in
which to eat and rest. I never was able
to see him catch a meal but I always found his leftovers. After a tasty meal of fleshy bug, he would
sweep out the too-crunchy legs and wings into a neat little pile just outside
of his matchbox.
Jim would also show me how some
fellers have amazing eyesight. You know
the cute little stripy guys that hang out around windowsills and potted plants? We call those Jumpers. For spiders they have really good vision and
we would test them by moving a finger back and forth several inches away. The little guys would shuffle and track our
fingers around and around. Watching them
hunt is a real treat. They’ll watch and
track an unsuspecting insect until the time is right and then LAUNCH in a
lightning fast hop! And the bug never knew what hit it. If a human had those hops, we’d be able to
jump right over our own roofs!
You might still be thinking, I don’t care about all of this – I still
hate spiders. I say, Get Over
It. The fact is, most spider species are
not capable of biting through human skin.
It is a fact that almost all of the wounds we blame on spiders are not
spider-bites at all – they are most likely skin infections brought on by an
insect bite or other abrasion. Certainly
their eight-legged crawl can send shivers down our spines, but just imagine what
we look like to them? Giant, fleshy
rolling pins ready to squish the life out of them, that’s what we humans are to
the spiders. They just want to mind
their own business, catch some flies and find a mate. It’s not our right to smash them on the spot,
just because they give us the creeps.
Next time scoop up that house spider
in a cup and throw him outside to find a new home. Or if that beautiful garden spider is
blocking your door, find a stick and relocate her and her web to a nearby bush. She will consume her broken web and recycle
it into a brand-new orb– isn’t that nifty?
And they will all stay busy gobbling up all of the insect pests that truly
are our enemies. Get it right and show
that spider the respect she deserves.
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