What a tangled web we weave in our thoughts about spiders

Robert Morgan
Tue 29 October 2024

Fen raft spider. Picture: Paul Sutcliffe (Image: Paul Sutcliffe)


Although much maligned, and often feared, spiders are an essential part of our natural world and indicators of a healthy environment, says Norfolk Wildlife Trust Reserves Officer Robert Morgan

Spiders have actively fuelled fear and suspicion in popular culture for centuries, becoming an integral part of the Halloween canon.

With their multiple beady eyes, bristly legs, fangs, and a reputation that far exceeds the reality of their character, they are understandably not everyone’s favourite creature.


However, some of us find them a wonder; often colourful, always acrobatic and their ability to spin patterned silk webs is fascinating.

Most of us, even with a limited knowledge of the natural world, know that spiders are not insects, but arachnids.

They have, of course, only a head and abdomen, eight legs rather than six, and no wings (flying spiders! now that’s an arachnophobe’s Halloween nightmare).

Our encounters with spiders are rarely a "Hammer Horror" experience of clawing an exaggerated web from our face in a dark crypt or dunk dungeon; more commonly it’s in the comfort of our own homes.

(Image: Richard Penska)

The gangly-legged cellar spiders that leave those infuriating cobwebs in hard-to-reach corners, the large brown house spider, with its boxing glove like "pedipalps", trying to clamber out of the bath, or a tiny black money spider hanging by a single thread, its safe landing assured in the vain hope of financial reward.

All spiders take live prey and different species have their preferred hunting methods, either by chasing prey down, lying in wait or constructing elaborate adhesive traps.

Unlike most invertebrates, spiders remain common in autumn, and fairly numerous in winter too, forming an important food source for small birds, particularly wrens.

During an early morning autumn stroll, frosty meadows reveal a ghostly sea of gossamer, spun by a multitude of tiny rappelling spiders.

The threads create the appearance of a shimmering silver net draped across the field, a touch of beauty on a cold day.

(Image: Jo Hobart)

My favourites to look out for this time of year are the orb spiders.

Their webs are a familiar form, but the splendour of their engineering skill is barely perceptible in summer.

Yet in winter, on a cool damp day, hundreds are visible. It is then that they exhibit their artistry, particularly when spangled by necklaces of tiny icy droplets.

The commonest is the garden orb, which has a white cross on the back of its body, like most of the orb spiders this is plump and uniquely marked.

You can easily identify the four-spot, marbled and green orb spiders, which are also found in gardens during the autumn months.

Even up to late October, if you are very lucky, you may come across the magnificent wasp spider hanging patiently for its trap to be sprung by its grasshopper prey.

(Image: RSWT)

The female is large and distinctively marked with yellow, black and white stripes, mimicking its namesake to warn off predators.

It spins a low-slung web in rough grass and has a unique zig-zag pattern running down the centre of it.

The male is much smaller, and as a suitor must cautiously approach his potential mate.

If he isn’t careful, during an amorous encounter, he may end up on her menu.

His best tactic is to move in when she moults, and her jaws are soft! Maybe, on reflection, spiders do have a justified place in the terrors of Halloween.

Many animal names are based on what they do, and ‘spider’ is from the Old English word spinnan, a person that spins thread. Other names for spiders, particularly around European cultures, refer to them as being venomous or even poisonous if eaten.

From Greek mythology to Saxon lore, and J.R.R. Tolkien to Harry Potter, cultural references have spiders, front and centre, as the baddie, Spiderman being the exception perhaps.

However, they rarely bite as their fangs are neither strong enough nor long enough to pierce human skin (unfairly, the nastiest bites always seem to be allocated to spiders).

Although, one warning, I have been bitten by a woodlouse hunting spider, and that did hurt, resulting in an irritating itching feeling for days after.

This spider needs to penetrate the woodlouse’s armour plating so is one of the few UK spiders that can deliver a meaningful bite.

Despite the encounter, I remain convinced that spiders are our allies.

(Image: Nick Goodrum)

The large house spider, that may greet us in the morning from the bathroom sink, is worth rescuing, for it feeds on fleas, silverfish, clothes moth larvae and all kinds of other household pests.

Spiders are now employed as pest-controllers in commercial greenhouses, and any gardener will tell you the benefits spiders bring to flowerbeds and allotment plots.

Spider venom has even been adapted for use in several modern medicines.

In August I wanted to see the results of an East Anglia conservation success story; a species that has been on my list of ‘must see’ since boyhood.

So, it was with some anticipation that I went in search of the fen raft spider, the UK’s largest species. And I wasn’t disappointed.

This amazing fish-eating spider had been, as recently as 2010, restricted to three small spots of East Anglia fen, and was facing probable extinction in the British Isles.

Conservation work to improve suitable habitats, and then extend its range through re-introductions has paid off. Estimates from counts of the larger females reached nearly 4,000 individuals this year.

The work to create new habitat for the spider also benefits other wetland species, and a site that can support fen raft spider is always high in biodiversity.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in his inaugural presidential speech stated that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” - apparently a Republican at the time, with some wit, added “…and spiders”.

I took my granddaughter to see the fen raft spider, and she was delighted we found one.

Irrational fears of the natural world are taught by others, not learnt from one’s own experience.