Comment by apricot13

I tried this with a yellowjacket and a screamer of a Shop Vac that has a six-foot hose. I was sure it would have suffocated from the dust inside the vacuum bag clogging its spiracles.

Next morning, the wasp (now with tattered wings) was sitting in the corner of a window. I have no idea how it made it out.

I feel guilty when I take down the webs. Wool dusters work as well as the vac.

Lately I have been trying to get macro photos of spiders hanging on their threads and so far failing because they see the camera and drop down a foot before I can set up the shot.

I'm sure putting it outside makes you feel better but it's a death sentence regardless for most house spiders to be put into the outdoors.

This was my exact arrangement with them when I used to live in a basement suite that was crawling with them.

glass and piece of card, come on!

> than have a spider drop from the door frame on an invisible silk thread and slam into my face, or run across my pillow

Rare if ever happens. Maybe 5 times in your life time. I will pay that cost any day. I have made friends with spiders. Flies spread diseases, spiders eat them. Spiders seldom bite humans and when they do, it’s nowhere near as bad as getting scratched by a cat.

Suit yourself, I'd much rather have the latter. One of the best features of spiders is that they can't fly. If a bug can fly, all bets are off. Who knows where that thing is going to end up. Spiders are at least more predictable.

I've never been prevented from sleep by a spider buzzing around the room, either.

The best way to get rid of spiders it to get rid of the files yourself then.

If there is nothing in your house for the spiders to eat, you won't have spiders. If you remove the spiders but not their prey (flies, etc...), you will have more flies, and spiders will keep coming back.

The reason the spider web in the article is so huge is that there is a huge amount of flies to feed the spiders.

> I'd much rather have a fly buzz past me

Ever wonder where those flies have been? Maybe on some nice smelly garbage, and then on your food or your dishes. Flies carry diseases, man.

> and get stuck to some fly paper

Glue traps are cruel.

I don't mind spiders at all, they mostly stay out of my way. Flies, on the other hand, land on my food, buzz around the room when I want to sleep, and are generally a nuisance.

They eat the creatures who want to eat you. Like beautiful guardian angels

My house has a problem with little black ants that pest control services never could quite take care of. Spiders kept trying to set up shop near a window, but I would always knock the web down. Once I relented and let the spiders do their thing my ant problem went away. All I need to do is clean up a few ant corpses in the fall, which is a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

It's actually spider webs that protect you from pests. The webs keep catching bugs as long as they are there, the spider just eats what it wants then moves on.

Mosquitos and flies are much more harmful than spiders.

Silverfish are one of the few insects grosser than any spider, even the way they scuttle is revolting.