The good thing about spiders is they're supreme insectivores.
The bad thing is they're indiscriminate killers.
They kill anything that wanders into their web (although some spiders do not use webs), both beneficial insects and bad ones.
But, imo, it's better to have them in a garden than be without them.
Interesting factoids about spiders:
-Spiders don't have teeth or chewing parts in their mouth. When they bite an insects, the poison does 2 things. It immobilizes it, and it dissolves the insects insides, which the spider sucks out.
-Except in very rare instances, no matter where you are on eath there is a spider (at least 1) within six feet of where you are right now.
-Spiders have been found higher than any other living creature--sometimes as high as 40,000 feet. Soon after they hatch, baby spiders (some species, not all) climb to the top of the nearest whatever, stick their butts in the air and emit some silk, which acts kinda like a parachute. The wind picks the spider up and away he goes.
Most spiders that travel like this die. Since 3/4 of the earths surface is covered with water, most spiders come down in water and drown .
-Spiders have adapted to more environments than any other creature. They can live in the sea, in streams & lakes (they can build nests underwater, then carry air bubbles down to put in their little homes), deserts, tundra and polar regions.
-When an island raises from the sea (like from a volcano), spiders are the first creatures that inhabit it.
I like spiders. Most I find in my house I transport outside, but the kind that build a web in the corner of a window and stay, I leave. They catch flies and I get a free little wild kingdom drama whenever they do.
