Crab Spiders — Nature’s Killers

As soon as this cold and wet spell comes to an end there will be a mad rush to get out in the garden and return to the soil, back to our “roots,” so to speak.

One thing is for sure, when you do have the opportunity to get back on your knees and play with your flowers you will meet up with — perhaps face-to-face — one of the most beautiful and efficient killers in your flower patch: the crab spider.

Please don’t panic! Even if they bit you — and they will not — they couldn’t hurt you.

When B. J. Kaston, a major U.S. Arachnologist from back East, published his “How to know the Spiders” in 1953, he recognized over 12 Genera and 30 species in the Family Thomisidae, which are collectively known as crab spiders.

The name is obvious when you see one scamper beneath a flower petal to escape discovery, but they really should be known as “Flower Spiders” as all but one of the genera live in flowers, waiting patiently for a butterfly, bee, fly, beetle or aphid to stroll by.

The fascinating thing about crab spiders “patiently waiting” is that they will carry it to extremes; some have been observed to not move for days on end.

Consider yourself fortunate when you observe one of the following visitors to your garden; they not only destroy garden pests but provide you with a view of Nature that most people overlook.

Enjoy… and please be careful what you spray in your garden. You have more friends than enemies living there and I assure you, if you’re patient, you will observe flower spiders that I have never seen.