Along came a spider...

You may not be an arachnid lover, but the fact is that spiders work hard to keep the bugs at bay, says Bob

- Bob Flowerdew

WHICH bunch of critters do you reckon are the gardeners’ true friends, if we judge by what eats the most pests? Birds? Hedgehogs? Frogs and toads? Shrews? Ladybirds? Violet ground beetles? All are good contenders, but now consider how many of each might be living in an acre of gardens. Obviously, there can be few larger predators, and many more smaller ones.

Well, one group so far not mentioned, and all totally insectivorous, probably outnumbers all the others. Frighteningly for arachnophobes, there will be very many spiders – not thousands, not tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but probably millions. Many of them will be hidden most of the time. Think of those perfectly formed garden spider webs dripping with dew, and how many sheets of money spider webs cover lawns and low plants in autumn.