Spider buddies: ecological pest control

Grasshoppers and I have something in common: we both love big, fat, sweet, juicy, homegrown tomatoes.  I can't blame them for liking them, but I can certainly hate them for eating ours.  We plant extra knowing that they'll get some of our crop, but its still a kick in the pants to see a huge, beautiful heirloom tomato with half a lobe eaten off.  Our flock of chickens does a good job of keeping the numbers down in the general vicinity of the garden, but there's no way to get all of them.  Tomato losses are unavoidable and inevitable.  I refuse to spray my food with pesticides, even those of the organic variety, because they kill valuable predator species like spiders that keep aphids and other pests in check.  Not to mention that many insects rapidly develop resistance to common sprays.  And mostly because I don't like eating pesticide.

Recently I noticed several garden spiders lurking in the tomato plants, their intricate webs spanning several branches and in some cases several plants.  The largest of them, pictured above, was rather imposing at 2 inches in length and had a curious zig-zag pattern woven into its web.  At first I didn't like them being there.  I'm not freaked out by spiders, but I generally don't like them to be lurking in the dark, shaded places where ripe tomatoes sometimes hide - and where I must reach to harvest them.  They were detracting from our overall enjoyment of the garden.  It occurred to me that the spiders were colonizing the tomatoes in response to the plentiful supply of tasty grasshopper food, but I still wasn't sold on having them there.  I contemplated several methods of killing them, such as smashing them between two 2 x 4's or attacking them with a fly swatter.

Spiderpig does whatever a spiderpig does.

 Before resorting to such drastic measures I decided to educate myself.  I learned that the common black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia), also known as the writing spider or corn spider, is essentially harmless to humans.  They rarely bite, and if they do their venom has little effect on people.  And the best part: they like to eat grasshoppers as much as I like to eat tomatoes. I was starting to like these guys.  The zig-zag pattern in the web is called a stabilimentum.  The purpose of this structure has been disputed by scientists and several ideas have been tossed around.  Originally it was thought to stabilize the web, hence the name.  Scientists later proposed alternative purposes: that it serves to camoflauge the spider, makes the web more visible to birds so they don't fly through it, or that it attracts prey.

Inspiration struck: let's catch a grasshopper and put it on the web and see what happens.  The results were incredibly awesome.  Words can't do it justice, check it out in the video below.

I've come full circle.  These guys are my friends - my spider buddies.  The protectors of tomatoes, the guardians of gourds, the champions of chard.  Whenever I'm in the garden I have to check on them to make sure they're doing alright.  Perhaps I will bring them more treats - but not too soon - they need to stay hungry.  This fall the big spider momma will build an egg sac, and with a bit of luck spider babies will emerge next spring to build their webs and wreak havoc on unsuspecting grasshoppers.  This is ecological pest control at its finest.

Who needs pesticides?  Not this guy.  Not with friends like these.