7 Myths About 'Spider Season' In Puget Sound

SEATTLE, WA — Locals know late August through September in Western Washington as "spider season" because it's the time of year when you get a mouthful of web whenever you're out walking the dog. But while it might feel like there are more spiders out there, a University of Washington arachnologist says "spider season" is a myth.

What we perceive at as "spider season" is actually not such a great time for local spiders, according to Rod Crawford, the arachnid coordinator at the University of Washington's Burke Museum.. In fact there are fewer spiders around now than there will be later this fall. At the end of summer, two spider types, the European orb weaver and giant house spider (both brought here from, yes, Europe) reach maturity. There aren't more of them, they're just a little bigger than they were at the beginning of summer.

Those two non-native arachnids (the giant house spider can reach a chilling 4 inches in size), by the way, are harmless. A spider can't tell the difference between your hand (or face, if you unluckily walk into a web) and the ground, so it's very unlikely to bite.

"It's a concern for the spider," Crawford said of the whole walking-into-a-spiderweb problem. "Because they'll have to drop off and go without food until they can make a new web."

Ready to have your mind blown? Here are some other myths about arachnids in our area, according to Crawford:

1. There are no poisonous spiders. Almost every spider, however, is venomous. That venom is not for defense, and it's certainly not for biting humans. Spider venom is primarily an insecticide, Crawford says, because spiders hunt and eat insects.

"I've held hundreds of live ones in my hands, and I've never known one to bite," he says.

2. Giant house spiders are good. These are the ones that you can actually hear crawling across the floor at night. As terrifying as that sound might be, giant house spiders (despite being an invasive species) control pests like bed bugs, cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, and moths. Also, they're not going to bite you because they can't tell the difference between you and whatever other surfaces they crawl across. Essentially, you have the same chance of getting bitten by a giant house spider as your linoleum floor.

3. No one knows if hobo spiders are deadly. Hobo spiders are the most feared of Pacific Northwest arachnids because they have a reputation of being deadly and aggressive. That's conjecture, Crawford says. People have reported getting serious bites from hobo spiders, but these accounts rely on the victim being a spider expert. Was it a hobo spider or something else? On top of that, hobo spiders aren't common in urban Puget Sound because the giant house spider out-competes them.

4. Indoor spiders will die if you put them outdoors. Some people will capture giant house spiders and place them outside as an alternative to squishing them. But doing this is a death sentence. Giant house spiders have adapted to living indoors, so putting them outside is like taking a human (putting them in a jar, maybe) and tossing them out into the middle of the ocean. If you absolutely can't stand to have the spider near you, it's better to let it go in your garage or attic.

5. That "Daddy longlegs" might not be a spider. Some long-legged arachnids spiders, others are just plain arachnids.

6. Don't worry about brown recluse and black widow spiders. "Brown recluse are all hype," Crawford said, adding that they haven't been seen west of Nebraska. Black widows show up in the Pacific Northwest sometimes, but, like every other spider, they don't go looking to bite humans. Black widows are extremely common in California and the Southwest. Bites, let alone deaths from the bites, are rare. In 2017, a 5-year-old girl in Massachusetts was (maybe) bitten by a black widow, but media reports indicated she just had some bruising.

7. You've been conditioned to hate spiders. Crawford does a lot of education about spiders, and that includes field trips showing kids the different types of arachnids out there. Often, he said, there will be that one kid who scares one of his classmates with a spider. And voila, that's one more person who will probably fear spiders forever. On top of that, depictions of spiders in the media are almost always scary. For example, after watching the 1990 movie "Arachnophobia" at age 6, this reporter started wearing shoes to bed to prevent spider bites. "It's quite obvious as [kids] get older they learn [to fear spiders] No. 1 from young kids, No. 2 from teachers and parents, and No. 3 from the media," he said.

Next time you see a spider in your house (or in your way while you're walking down the sidewalk), think of it as a friend. A friend with eight eyes, but nonetheless a friend.

Photo: An European orb weaver: creepy, yes, but harmless (unless you're a bug).

Photo by Neal McNamara/Patch.com