This summer was the harvest of spiders! It seemed like it rained every other day, and sometimes for days at a time. That being said, insects and spiders were in abundance this year! My father asked me to help him with all the tiny spiders that were getting into his electronics and causing problems. I’d never had him ask me for help before this summer. There were simply more spiders this summer than any other that I can remember.

“I live by the water and had a huge problem with spiders. Now I can go out on my deck at night, all the railings and outdoor lights are spider-free. I now can look out my windows without spider webs.”
-Greg in Wayzata

Spiders are in the arachnid family and not the insect family, as they have eight legs whereas, insects only have six. You can group spiders into two different groups by the way that they hunt for their food. One group will build a web to catch insects nearby where they are entering or exiting a home. The other group of spiders will run around and hunt for insects. They are the ones that leave that one strand of webbing that you run into with your face as you meander through the basement. Creepy!

Did you know that each spider egg sac will contain approximately 250 little hatchling spiders? When they’re born, one half eats the other half as their first meal. That is one of their survival instincts. Did you know that homes located next to a lake, pond, or marshy area will have a lot more insects, and therefore, a lot more spiders as a result of the insect pressure in those areas? When we had a summer as we had with all the moisture, every home ended up having a high level of insect and spider activity.

One of the biggest myths about spiders is that they’re waiting to bite us at any moment. It is rare for spiders to bite people. If you pick one up, or if you happen to roll over on one while you’re sleeping, you may get bitten. However, it is something that would only happen because it is trying to defend itself. I have checked foundations for 16 years, sticking my fingers behind siding and in areas where spiders come running out, and I have not been bitten once by a spider. They are way more afraid of us than we could ever be of them.