Even a person who does not suffer from arachnophobia will react emotionally to the appearance of a spider in the room and reach for a slipper. However, according to entomologists, the best solution is not to interfere with the arthropod's business.
Killing a spider in the house is not only a bad omen, but also damage to the home ecosystem. Spiders live in even the cleanest houses. In The Conversation magazine, entomologist Matt Bertone and his colleagues from North Carolina State University in the US published a study of 50 North Carolina homes and found spiders in each of them. According to Bertone, spiders are important participants in the internal ecosystems of human dwellings. They are universal predators and feed on almost anything: from a dead fly stuck in a window to a mosquito that planned to drink human blood. Sometimes spiders even eat other spiders.
Many of their victims are potential disease carriers. There is even a species of jumping spider that is used to feeding on insects in African homes.
Spiders living in houses are not the poisonous monsters of the Australian newspaper headlines. During his research, Bertone most often found common house spiders, such as recluse spiders and the most harmful arthropods in the recluse spider family.
Yes, most spiders are poisonous, but their venom is not strong enough to cause any harm to humans. Spider "fangs" are also often too weak to bite through skin.
Despite the myths, spiders almost never crawl on sleeping people. Snoring, snorting, and even simple breathing are enough to scare away domestic arthropods.
If you suffer from arachnophobia or simply do not want a spider to crawl around your apartment or house, scientists advise not to kill the arthropod, but to catch it and release it outside. The spider will find a place to go and no one will get hurt.