Beneficial spiders on orchid plant?

[Germinatorman]

Have you ever been bitten by a wolf spider? A friend of mine was bitten and the bite went septic. It was touch and go for a while and ended up with a nasty scar. That baby must have had dirty teeth.,..................

[pavel]

How did he manage to get a wolfspider to bite him? That alone amazes me -- and that comes from someone who has caught them many a time by hand.

The bite of any creature can become septic -- including humans -- truth be told. But that is very odd all the same. If it had been a hobo spider or brown recluse I would not have been terribly surprised.

[cakedaddy]

I have tons of spiders on my orchids...and I rarely see any living aphids or ants. I even have a "little" guy who uses my shower as a vacation home. That's what I assume anyway considering that I only see him for a few days every two weeks or so! And wolf spiders? You mean the rather largish brown/grey fuzzy looking guys who are wandering hunters? I like those. All spiders are venomous...only some of them are capable of biting humans and out of these, only some have venom powerful enough to do any harm. I agree with Pavel that ANY injury however minor can be a magnet for infection if not cared for properly. I have been known to escort a black widow into the safety of the woods.....****the more "good" spiders you have around, the less prey there is available to those that could do you harm.

[poetiscariot]

Last fall I saw more spiderwebs in my house than I'd ever seen -- something must have made it a good year for spiders and I think they came in when it started to get cold -- and ever since I've had webs alongside my orchid area and a few in the plants off and on. They made me nervous, because although I love spiders, I did wonder if I had spider *mites*. Most of a year later, though, my plants seem to be in great shape, so I guess it was spiders. I blow out the webs off and on, because they are a little gross-looking, but they come back pretty quickly, so, eh. I have eight-legged roommates.

[Daethen]

Well, I guess I am odd man out. I am NOT a spider lover. I know they have their place in the scheme of things, but not near me. The last place we lived had soooo many wolf spiders and they were bigger than any I had ever seen before. I found 8 in the house in one day and they were all huge. Also, they were not afraid of you. I went after one with a huge flashlight and knocked 3 legs off of it and it came after me. I had 2 children crawling at the time and was not happy with the thought of them getting bit. Sorry, but they can live outside, but not in my home. After all, I won't try to invade their webs.