Common Spiders In and Around Homes

New from Cooperative Extension Publishing . . .

Common Spiders In and Around Homes (A2135)

By Phil Pellitteri, Jeffrey Hahn, Laura Jesse, Donald Lewis

The authors present brief and colorful information to help you identify, live with, get rid of, and perhaps even enjoy spiders that live near your house and may wander in for a visit. They offer simple and sensible alternatives to the scream-and-stomp school of spider control.

“Most spiders are harmless to people and are incapable of biting,” say the authors. “Tolerance for spiders and simple capture and removal,” they add, “are recommended whenever possible.” They suggest various in-the-house strategies for getting rid of these creatures, as well as out-of-doors ploys for preventing them from entering in the first place.

Fifteen color photographs of arachnid interlopers—some colorful, some gloomy—are likely to remind you of creatures you’ve seen frozen in the center of a basement web, scurrying across a carpet, or rappelling down a bedroom wall. The authors give brief bios of the fifteen. Among them are the speedy wolf spider who hides under rocks, the jumping spider who leaps onto prey from inches away, the fishing spider who dives under water to capture food, and the marbled orb weaver spider who conjures up aesthetically pleasing webs of the sort that, when beaded with dew, are the favorites of photographers.

This colorful six-page publication is offered free, download only, at The Learning Store.

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