I’m a Spider Scientist working at the University of Nottingham and am very happy to see that Composty has some spider-friendly tips to offer.

Spiders are not just part of our natural environment but are potential helpful partners that can support us as we try to look after the world around us. The big house spiders we might see indoors absolutely aren’t dangerous or trying to scare us either (but then the Composty family knows that already.)

In themselves, spiders are wonderfully intriguing creatures that have the most ingenious ways to cope with the world around them.

Did you know some of them can write their own signature in silk?

Others can build a silken climbing frame for their baby spiderlings to play on, and many spiderlings can fly up in the air as high as an airplane using silken sails.

So that makes them authors, acrobats and astronauts (ok maybe the last one is a slight exaggeration).

Even cave spiders with very little eyesight will venture out of their cave and try their luck using a silken sail to fly away on new adventures, so I think they should win awards for daring and bravery too.

Back to the business of the spider on your doorstep though – and the many reasons why we should try to be Spider Friendly and look after their Creature Comforts along with all the other living things that we care for.

1. Spiders are nature's answer to a sit-and-wait vacuum cleaner that removes unwanted insects as soon as they arrive (entirely free of charge – you are welcome.)
2. Spiders are an indicator that our homes do not contain residues of chemically- based insecticides (spiders often die off first before the intended insect target.)
3. Spiders’ presence as they tiptoe quietly indoors (making less noise than the average teenager) should make us feel happy because it tells us that the spiders in the ecosystems outside our front doors are probably doing OK too - and this matters for the natural balance in the environment as a whole.

Creature Comforts

It's always the case that we should feel free to decide who to share our home with (whether it be people, animals or things). But maybe we should sometimes decide that we are happy to see a spider and might even want them to stay? Perhaps instead of trying to make them leave your home, instead be ‘Spider Smart’ and make it Spider-Friendly? Leave a few cobwebs, don’t hoover too enthusiastically, and know that whilst you are looking after them, actually they are returning the favour and looking after you.

Sara and the Spiders
(on behalf of the SpiderLab at the University of Nottingham)
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/life-sciences/people/sara.goodacre