As the chilly weather settles in, Iowans may find several species of spiders are also settling in — inside our homes. One expert pleads, don’t squish those eight-legged creatures, but learn to “spread the bug love.”
Ginny Mitchell, an entomologist at Iowa State University, says if you happen across wolf spiders, funnel weaving spiders, jumping spiders and cellar spiders in your house, leave them alone, as they truly don’t pose you a threat and could be an asset.
“They are predators of other potential pests, such as earwigs, maybe cockroaches — I mean, I don’t have those in my house, but if I did, those spiders would take care of them,” Mitchell says. “In fact, I will move spiders into my basement this time of the year.” Mitchell says spiders eat all kinds of insects that may damage or destroy our plants, and bugs that could be pests to our pets and to people. She says spiders are vital to our ecosystem.
Mitchell says, “Instead of looking at them with this innate feeling that we have as humans, to be afraid of things that are much different than us — like spiders — let’s look at their unique abilities, their unique role on our planet.”
Spiders do have tiny fangs that can inject venom into their prey, but that shouldn’t be a concern, as they only wish to use their fangs on their food, not people. Mitchell is the education program coordinator of ISU’s Insect Zoo, which is on a mission to teach people the importance of arthropods, including spiders.
“If you look at a jumping spider up close, they are the cutest little things ever,” Mitchell says. “They have these big puppy dog eyes and these pedipalps that are fuzzy and they use them to clean themselves, and they just look like they just want to be your best friend — and that’s really what they want to do. They want to eat all the bugs that live in your house or even around your house.”
If you’re a fan of spraying chemicals to kill all creepy-crawlers, Mitchell implores, don’t. “It’s more dangerous for you to spray an insecticide inside your house than for you to have the spiders that are native to Iowa, such as the cobweb spiders, the jumping spiders, wolf spiders,” she says. “Those insecticides are far more dangerous than the spiders themselves.”
Nationwide, there are very few medically significant spiders to worry about. The brown recluse and the black widow are very uncommon in Iowa, and besides, they’re typically not aggressive toward people.