I like spiders, they catch gnats!
Spiders are cool!
This last late September I had a rather large female Orb Weaver spin her web half anchored to the corner of my house and the other half anchored to the recycling bin.
<in my photo, that's her underside, and you can clearly see, upper left, a bug caught in her web>
For nearly a week I watched as she consumed her roughly 2' x 2' web into her mouth, then very quickly spun a fresh one. I was blown away by how quickly she spun a fresh web. She spun a new web daily as the Sun was setting. I saw different bugs get stuck in her web, while she sat motionlessly and patiently, waiting for the best time to strike. So freakin' cool!
Just about every day I pulled up a lawn chair and just watched her go about her business. It's times like that I wish I had a decent GoPro.
FWIW, female Orb Weaver's are sexual cannibals, meaning, after mating they kill and consume the male. LOL, I sure hope they both had intensely awesome orgasms! Not all varieties of female spiders are sexual cannibals.
After about a week, week and a half, or first week of Oct. she was gone. I read that they then go to deposit their egg sac and then usually die shortly thereafter.
A female can lay about 1400 eggs (some more, some less). In spring the spiderlings hatch and go about their merry ways.
Spiderlings are tiny. For their first week, or so, of life they only eat airborne plankton (yes, that is a thing!). We humans naturally inhale a crap-ton of airborne plankton daily (both the good kind and the bad).
Up here an Orb Weaver's lifespan is from spring to autumn.
Also FWIW, a bite from an Orb Weaver (female or male) only happens because a person gets too much in their 'space'. Obviously they fear something happening to them, so they react with their natural defense, their bite. I've been bitten a couple of times by Orb Weavers in our garden. Their bites are similar to a mosquito bite, bigger looking, but only itchy.
Here is a professionally shot photo of a female Orb Weaver (LOL, obviously not my pic).
She is pretty! Though I wouldn't want to be her eventual spider mate. That whole sexual cannibalism thing would not be desirable.
I don't kill house spiders, they serve a purpose. If I see one on a wall, I leave it go about its business. I mean, ya know, they aren't looking to hunt and bite me! LOL
