Spiders have some good points

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Spiders. Not too many people really like spiders. In fact, an awful lot of folk really detest them. But spiders, like everything else, have some very good points.
The most commendable one is that they eat insects - and insects are our very worst enemies in the natural world. One man estimates that the weight of insects eaten by spiders, in Canada, in a single year, would just about equal the weight of all of the people in Canada. They do away with billions and billions of insects each year.
Spiders are not recent additions to our world. It is estimated that they have been on earth for about 400 million years. Consider that man has been here for only about 25 million years, we are certainly the ‘johnny-come-lately’ in that comparison.
There are spiders which live in your house, cellar, attic, shed, barn, and in the garden, lawn, bushes, trees, under your dock - just about everywhere. We all know these very common ones. But here are a few of the many who have developed characteristics which are most unusual and very different.
The Trap-door Spider is quite a big fellow - the female may be 3 cm long. It has long stout legs. This one lives in the desert, in a hole in the ground, which is lined with silk. The hole has a door. This is made of sand or earth glued with silk. The spider also makes a hinge out of silk, so the door can be opened and closed. She watches out of this door, and rushes out to grab the unwary insect for dinner. It senses danger, it can hold the trap-door shut from the inside. And it takes quite a bit of force to pull that door open, too.
The Wolf Spider also lives in a hole in the ground. When he spots an insect victim, he chases it across the sand, and finally leaps on it, much like his namesake does.
Flower Spiders don’t spin any webs either. They stay perfectly still in a garden flower until an insect comes along. And it always does - a spider is the same colour as the flower he sits on. So he gets his lunch just by being still and patient.
The Jumping Spider is a small spider, especially in Ontario. This little spider is often found in the bark of trees. Two of its forward-facing eyes (most spiders have eight eyes) are large so that they look like tiny headlights. When he spots an insect, he just jumps on it. Some of these small spiders can jump about 15 cm. That’s equivalent to a 6 foot man jumping about 100 feet. Quite an athlete!
The Fishing Spider can run across water, and can stay underwater for almost an hour. It lives mainly on insects, but it can also catch and eat tadpoles and small fish. It holds a bubble of air under its body so it can pop to the surface at any time.
And the Water Spider builds its own diving bell. She lives in there, and can add air to it any time.
And so, on and on. There is a fascinating array of spiders. Having lived on earth for all those millions of years, they have evolved into some of the most intriguing creatures we have.