This is what my dad used to say to me about basically anything I didn’t like that wouldn’t necessarily kill me. Thunderstorms are our friends. Lions? Friends. Julie, don’t you forget -- guns are our friends. (I’m from Texas.)
So I allowed a little further investigation into what is a fairly common fear-inducing little invertebrate: the furry, prickly sometimes deadly but always evil spider, who may as well feed off of puppies and veal for all the rage he seems to evoke. As I delved, a guilt began to swell in me and in fact, I discovered that spiders are indeed, our friends.
Aside from recycling dead trees and animals back into the earth and providing a source of food for birds, fish and small animals, spiders play an important role in pest management. With over 50,000 species- most of which are not venomous to humans, spiders catch many insects -- killing an average of about 2,000 per year. By using them in agriculture like organic cotton farming, benefits have been estimated to surpass $100 billion per year.
If this wasn’t reason enough, spider venom is used as a base for certain medicinals and their silk is used in optical devices. In fact, if spiders weren’t so cannibalistic and territorial, we’d likely be collecting them in massive numbers in order to use their silk to help injured athletes repair connective tissue or to encourage cell re-growth across severed nerves. The silk (PDF) is, after all, as strong as steel while still remaining extremely flexible and elastic. A pencil wide piece is capable of pulling a Boeing 747. Not too shabby.
While you may not want to take a spider to lunch, you can still be friendly to that little 8-legged visitor by using the spider relocator to launch him back to his proper terrain while giving your nerves a little rest. And give him a high five as you shut the door behind you.
Further Watching:
