Let’s be honest, what’s scarier than a spider?
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Oh, I don’t know — maybe the red dye in candy corn?
Here we are, living our best life on a glorious autumn day when, suddenly, unexpectantly, we pass through a silky soft strand of what just might be a … SPIDER WEB!
Is it necessary to jump five feet in the air or belt out a shriek that rivals Drew Barrymore’s in “Scream” or, worse, grab a shovel?
Spiders are an important member of the ecosystem and something a gazillion times smaller than the average human, says Andres Ortega, aquatic resources supervisor and former invertebrate ecologist with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.
They should not incite a visceral reaction. After all, aren’t we the same people who celebrate butterflies and chase the glow of lightning bugs?
As the saying goes, “Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.”
Still, Ortega says, “All of Mother Nature’s creatures deserve consideration and respect” — even in fall when spider webs are everywhere, even on the eve of Halloween when oversized likenesses are grouped with vampires and zombies, and even when the creatures inadvertently cross the border into our homes.
To know a spider’s purpose is to appreciate a spider’s purpose, he said.
Spiders are not insects. They are arachnids, he said. Spiders have eight legs, while insects have six. Spiders have one or two main body parts, insects have three. And while spiders cannot fly, most insects have wings.
This means spiders don’t have the option to migrate south for the winter. When the temperature starts to dip and the sun goes low in the sky, spiders have two options: bulk up to wait out the cold or, anticipating death, attract a mate, breed and lay eggs to keep the species going.
Either way, if it seems they are coming out of the woodwork lately it’s only because their increased activity makes them more obvious, Ortega said.
Spiders eat other small invertebrates such as gnats, mosquitoes and flies, which helps keep balance in nature.
Spiders also are prey for larger organisms — birds, mammals, reptiles. They are an important part of their prey base, he said.
“If there were no spiders, we might see prey populations out of control and larger animals would suffer,” he said.
It’s important to note that “spiders are not after us,” Ortega said. “When we see them what they want most is to get away from us.
“If we were facing an organism many tens or hundreds of times our size, would we try and fight that creature, or would we do our best to get away from it?” he said.
Frankly, Ortega said, “we’re much more of a danger to them than they are to us. If we leave them alone, they will leave us alone.”
The vast majority of spiders in Northern Illinois are harmless, Ortega said, even though they have the ability to bite. “By and large, unless you are sensitive to that particular spider’s venom, it will hurt less than the average bee or wasp sting,” he said. “Of course, there are some people who are allergic to particular spider venom but those cases are rare.”
Black widows and brown recluses can be harmful if they bite but they are generally not seen this far north in Illinois, Ortega said. “They have a hard time dealing with winter. But we do find isolated cases of them. Almost universally those are cases of someone moving from down south and inadvertently bringing along some hitchhikers.”
Our fear of spiders seems to come from our “own internal bias about we consider cute or charismatic,” he said.
“When we view something as beautiful or charismatic, we are often more sympathetic to it. When we see butterflies, bright colorful things, even children do this, we’re more sympathetic or more interested,” he said.
By contrast, when we see a spider, often not colorful and often on the ground or in dark places, “we are not as sympathetic.”
Still, Ortega said, he “gets it.”
“Even me — knowing the value of them and being respectful of all life forms and encouraging other to do the same – if I wake up and feel a spider crawling on me, I’m probably not going to have a good reaction,” he said.
“We likely view something crawling on us as a potential danger,” he said. “It’s a reaction born out of safety.”
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Over the course of human history, we’ve associated certain organisms — including bats, snakes, crows and spiders — with creepiness, with danger. That is reinforced through much of our Halloween imagery, he said.
“But that’s not true and it’s not fair,” he said.
“It would be a great thing for all of us to have a little more sympathy for those organisms that may not be as charismatic as others,” he said.
That goes beyond spiders, he said, to all of nature’s creatures.
“They very likely have an important role, and very likely they mean us no harm,” Ortega said. “And so the best thing to do is view them from a distance, protect them and keep going on with our lives. And they’ll go on with theirs.
“The more we understand them and respect them, the better it will be for all of us in this ecosystem we share.”
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.