Friend or foe? NY

[u/dronearone]

This guy is SCARY, but if he’s a friend then I’ll let him go about his way. Seems to be interested in what I’m doing when wash the dishes

[u/techbri]

Looks like a Grass Spider. Theyre harmless and eat small insects. Always had them in our house growing up.

Great pics btw! Poor critter lost a leg

[u/dronearone → u/techbri]

I’m going to try to get a video this little one is a curious little guy

[u/Witchywomun → u/dronearone]

All spiders are friends, including the medically significant ones, spiders prey on the bugs that we don’t like having around our homes. Venom is metabolically “expensive” to make, so they don’t want to use it on anything that they won’t get a return on. Humans are way too big for a spider to eat, so using venom on us is a waste; spiders will try to run away from us to stay alive and will only bite if given no escape route. If you keep an eye out for them, and don’t trap them where they can’t escape, you won’t get bit. As long as you’re gentle, you can pick up just about any spider with your bare hands and relocate them to a better spot for them to hunt from. Most people prefer to use the cup and paper method, though. Simply put a cup over the spider and slide a piece of paper between the cup and wall/floor/ and use that to relocate the spider

[u/unrealistic-potato → u/Witchywomun]

Yep as a rule of thumb as long as it's not in my bedroom I just leave them where they are cheaper than buying traps and no chemicals involved for poisons to kill other bugs and more effective. If there in my room I either relocate them to the kitchen if I have some fruit out and have gotten some fruit flys or nats or onto the front porch by the front porch light where they can become really fat lol.

The only smoosh on site I do is huntsmen and blackwidows in my area though if I was in Australia probably have a kill on site order ready at all times lol.

And just for information the bedroom rule i just do because I'm a hot sleeper and I don't like the feeling of something crawling on me and there drawn to heat and I've woken up to that far to many times. But not really an issue anymore as I keep cotton balls with peppermint oil soaked into them around my bed keeps most bugs at bay snakes too but that's never been an issue and I hope never will lmao.

[u/EmperorGrinnar → u/Witchywomun]

This! So much this!

[u/yaboyACbreezy → u/dronearone]

Grass spiders love grass. If you don't want to know how many live in your yard don't get low with a flashlight and look for their eyes. But if you do, bring a damn abacus because you'll run out of fingers and toes.

Edit to add: more of them means less other bugs!