Eight Legged Friends

Autumn is commonly referred to as Spider Season.

It is this time of year when their intricate webs are particularly visible in our gardens in the still, dewy mornings.

It is also the time when a swarm of plastic creepy crawlies and swathe of cobwebs invade our homes and workplaces ready for the trick or treating season. Spiders and Halloween have a synonymous association which goes back millennia and much of this comes down to folk law around witchcraft.

Black cats, rats and spiders were believed to be the evil companions of witches as far back as medieval times and no sinister haunted house would be complete without cobwebs galore!

But for the British gardener, spiders take the very different form of a friendly ally. They will eat as many pests and insects as they can catch in their webs, helping to reduce the need for pesticides and even reducing the number of bites and stings you may be inflicted with when tending to the flowerbeds.

Many species of spider in Britain also ‘overwinter’ meaning that adults will soon sleep over the winter and awake in the Spring ready to start their important role of pest control as soon as the first pesky bugs appear.

So let’s take a moment to put the spooky superstition to one side and say thank you to our eight legged friends this Spider Season.