Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

The Pholcus phalangioides and I have a pretty good arrangement, they eat the bugs that come into my house and I clean up after them. I suppose they probably don’t “care” that I clean up after them. Although the way they leave their trash behind makes it seem like it’s almost intentional, like “Here, I’ve left this pile for you, enjoy.”

Under chairs, under the heaters, behind the stereo speakers…in all these places I find hundreds of mummified remains of pill bugs. Valiant sentries keeping watch over every corner, my Pholcus phalangioides friends keep my house free of creepy crawlies – in a very eco-friendly way. Who knows how many critters would be  crawling the walls without my Pholcus phalangioides AKA Daddy Long Legs exterminators to keep them in check. 

The Pholcus phalangioides are rather entertaining too, they dance frenetically whenever they’re disturbed. I guess it’s a defense mechanism against predators.  It’s wasted on me because neither I nor my vacuum cleaner has much malicious intent. From what I have read, the Pholcus phalangioides don’t bite, but they actually eat bugs that might bite (such as other spiders and mosquitos). These spiders stay in the corners out of my way,  and really are more helpful than “pest”. When there are a lot of them they tend to eat each other, so there are never too many around.

I am fairly fascinated by spiders, and at the same time afraid of them. When I traveled to a jungle for the first time I couldn’t sleep for two weeks worried about spiders, then felt almost disappointed when I didn’t see any enormous ones. I haven’t had the guts to pick one of my house spiders up, although I am curious to see how they would react. On several occasions I have saved these fragile little guys from drowning in the sink or tub with a paper towel ladder. In one or two instances I actually dried drowning spiders off, which was interesting. Seemingly lifeless soaking wet spiders got up and walked away after I dabbed them with a paper towel.

There’s a researcher in Germany, Bernard Huber, whose site has lots of tidbits, in case you want to read more about these creatures. Reading Huber’s website with his  facts about Pholcus phalangioides I start to have second thoughts about these spiders not appreciating my maid service. “Their untidy web is used more as a place to stay than for catching prey. The spider hangs upside down in the web. If the web becomes too dirty, then it is abandoned and a new web is woven.” Apparently, these spiders like to keep things as tidy as I do. 

This is a drawing by his daughter, it’s pretty accurate if you ask me.