Take spiders for example. But before you\u2019re tempted to squash that eight-legged creepy crawly you see meandering across the floor, consider giving it a little credit.<\/p>\n
Like bats \u2013 another iconic species that winds up in the spotlight every Halloween \u2013 spiders have a serious public-relations problem.<\/p>\n
They show up in dark corners. They appear without warning. They have eight legs and can have as many as eight eyes. And every October, we see them turned into plastic decorations. But the real spiders living around us are considerably more interesting \u2013 and much more useful \u2013 than their Halloween reputation suggests.<\/p>\n
Canada is home to 1,439 known species of spiders, with likely other species not yet found. They range from tiny, almost invisible hunters to impressive fishing spiders that can chase prey across the surface of water and even dive underwater. Some build webs. Others stalk their prey, lie in wait or hunt on the ground.<\/p>\n
And what are all these spiders doing? Mostly, eating.<\/p>\n
Spiders are predators, and many of the things on their menu are insects like flies and mosquitos as well as destructive crop, tree and garden aphids.<\/p>\n
So that spider in the neighbourhood could be very beneficial. It may be providing a tiny, eight-legged pest-control service \u2013 and at a much more affordable rate!<\/p>\n
Spiders may be plentiful, but that doesn’t mean every species is doing fine.<\/p>\n
Canada’s Wild Species 2020 assessment identified 47 spider species that may be at risk. Seventeen were considered critically imperiled, 30 imperiled and 39 vulnerable. At the same time, the status of 481 species could not be determined because there wasn’t enough information to rank them.<\/p>\n
The concerns are familiar ones: habitat loss, pesticides and climate change.<\/p>\n
Consider the Georgia Basin Bog Spider, a small wetland species found in southern British Columbia. It has been assessed by the Committee of the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as Special Concern and is known from only four Canadian sites. Three of those sites are less than three metres above sea level, making them vulnerable to rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms. Habitat changes and pollution are additional concerns.<\/p>\n
For spiders, losing the right habitat can be a much bigger problem than losing a web in the corner of your yard.<\/p>\n
Here’s a surprisingly easy way to help. Leave some leaves.<\/p>\n
Fallen leaves aren’t just something to bag up and put at the curb. Leaf litter can provide shelter and overwintering habitat for spiders and other invertebrates. Recent research found hundreds of spiders overwintering in leaf litter associated with woody vegetation, with the amount of leaf litter influencing spider abundance and community composition.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean you need to turn your yard into a wilderness. Instead, leave some leaves beneath trees and shrubs. Let some native grasses and flower stems stand through winter. Not only will they help to provide shelter but their seed heads will provide food for overwintering birds. Keep a slightly wild corner where leaves, twigs and vegetation can provide shelter.<\/p>\n
In other words, don’t feel compelled to clean everything. Underneath the natural debris spiders may be surviving winter as eggs or by powering down their body systems, supercooling their body fluids or using a natural antifreeze to block ice crystals.<\/p>\n
Some of the most common spiders found in Canadian homes include the Common House Spider, the Northern Yellow Sac Spider, wolf spiders, cellar spiders and fishing spiders. All but one group of spiders found in Canada, the Widows, are harmless to people, and spiders generally avoid humans rather than seek us out, but many will bite if threatened. Quite rarely some venomous spiders like the Brown Recluse hitchhike their way to Canada with cargo, such as shipments of fruit.<\/p>\n
If you really don’t want to see these spiders, there’s no need for a Halloween-style showdown. A jar and piece of stiff paper can be used to catch and release these tiny creatures to a less visible location. Leaving a few spiders in basements and crawl spaces can help capture insects such as earwigs. And remember: not every spider needs a web to be useful. Some are active hunters, so don’t assume that a web-free garden is a spider-free garden.<\/p>\n
Here are six ways to be a spider ally this fall.<\/p>\n
This Halloween, go ahead and celebrate spiders naturally. Don\u2019t hang fake webs outside but instead feature a few pictures of spiders in your windows. And when you spot a real one? Maybe let it stay. After all, the spider isn’t trying to scare you. It’s just trying to make a living. And in a country with 1,439 species of them, that’s a lot of little lives worth making room for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"