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There's a spider the size of a gardening glove in my compost bin. It obviously gets a good living in there, feeding on the flies, woodlice, beetles and earwigs, the remains of which can be vaguely guessed in its untidy sheet of a web. I wouldn

Moving some bricks around the shed yesterday revealed one of my favourite spiders. With a narrow reddish-pink body 25 mm long and long rather slender legs, there is no mistaking the 'woodlouse' spider, Dysdera crocata. It makes no web, but hunts

Although, yes, technically it is a spider, I’m almost positive that nobody could really be scared of the zebra spider, Salticus scenicus. It lacks all those sinister characteristics that can cause unease among some people — it isn’t black and hairy

marble or polished granite.But, as ever, it is the wasps that are making more than their fair share of the humming. And it is also they that are being killed. There are several spider webs amongst the ivy flowers, and some rather fat-looking and obviously

in the thicket of climber on the fence. The first ladybird of the year, a seven-spot, sunned itself on the ivy. And one of my favourite spiders is back.Pisaura mirabilis is a beautifully sleek and elegant creature, dusky grey with a beige streak down its back. It

There are wolf spiders all over my garden, so last week I had the Ivydale School Natural History Club semaphore signalling across the classroom. There is a connection … honest.These are great little spiders, very distinctive, unless you need to know

while later he calls out that he has found a giant spider crawling along the wall near the house. I wander over expecting a long-legged harvestman or perhaps a large house spider, Tegenaria, but his word is true. There, plodding through the yarrow

These tiny, sap-sucking pests may be only 0.5mm long but they can wreak havoc in a greenhouse or on houseplants indoors. For most of the year they are a pale green colour with two dark spots on their back; it's only in autumn and winter that they turn orange-red. They thrive in h...

 (except that woodpecker), my compost microcosm is in hibernation torpor at the moment. But I know things will burst open again in spring. Tucked into the overlapping featheredge of the lid are several untidy silk igloos. These are the egg-sacs of the spiders that inhabit

-free this year. Last year they wreaked havoc, unearthing seeds and decapitating young plants.Red spider mite can overwinter in tiny cracks and crevices, so I’ll be sure to scrub the whole greenhouse structure with a brush and soapy water. I didn’t have any