On the web: Make friends with spiders if you don't like flies and other insects

Maybe we should follow an old folk belief in Ireland that spiders should not be harmed, writes Donal Hickey

Spider web: As the weather gets colder in autumn, spiders tend to go indoors, mainly to breed

Since learning the story, in school long ago, of how a broken Scottish king, Robert The Bruce, was inspired by a spider to go back and win independence from England, I’ve admired the tenacity of this eight-legged creature.

Bruce was in a cave when he saw a spider trying to weave a web. It fell many times, but always climbed back again until it succeeded. The king identified with the spider in his own struggles.

The invasive, false widow spider is in Ireland, prompting warnings that it could almost wipe out our resident spider population. 

However, many of those so concerned about our numerous, native spider species are overlooking the obvious: the biggest spider killer is most likely human.

For, in countless homes across the country, spiders are wiped out during regular, domestic clean-ups in which webs in often hidden corners are swept away unceremoniously. Two hours of web-building by a spider blown away in seconds!

Spiders build webs year-round, but autumn is the best time to see webs outdoors.

Having spiders around can be useful. They are, after all, nature’s pest controllers, feeding on insects and flies, cockroaches and moths. Some people are even afraid of harmless spiders and have a condition known scientifically as arachnophobia.

As the weather gets colder in autumn, spiders tend to go indoors, mainly to breed. Males die off, after breeding, but females live into the next year, laying thousands of eggs.

A spider’s silken web is a thing of beauty, complex, intricate and spun with superb skill. Jan Beccaloni, spider curator at the British Natural History Museum, rightly described it as a "wonderful feat of natural engineering".

Spiders build webs year-round, but autumn is the best time to see webs outdoors. If you look carefully in the morning, you’ll notice the dew shows up many webs that had been almost invisible.

Spider web highlighted by dew: spiders are nature’s pest controllers, feeding on insects and flies, cockroaches and moths.

Being intelligent creatures, spiders carefully pick their web locations, often along the flight paths of insects, or close to the ground to catch crawlers. All the while, the spider watches from close quarters waiting for the hapless insect to fly into the trap, providing the spider’s next meal.

Finally, there was a folk belief in Ireland that spiders should not be harmed. The following is a hand-written account from an Agnes O’Leary, of Lavally Upper, Mallow, Co. Cork, in the Dúchas 1938 schools collection: "People say that when Our Lord was born in the stable it was very cold and that Our Blessed Lady had not much clothes to wrap Him in and that spiders came and spun webs around Him and kept Him warm. Some people say spiders are holy and that it is a sin to kill them."