How to Draw Spiders to Your Yard

Let’s talk about spiders!

Spiders are actually the good guys, dare I say even allies, in your garden and yard because they eat the very insects that feast on the plants and vegetables in your garden. Spiders are categorized as either web spinners/weavers or hunters. Both kinds of spiders eat large volume of mosquitos, wasps, aphids, caterpillars, beetles, and the list goes on and on. In fact, spiders eat more insects than birds, bats and ants – which is great news for your garden and for enjoying your backyard. Free pest control? Heck, yes!

So how can you attract more spiders to your yard and garden? Thankfully it’s pretty easy. If you provide the habitat, they will come.

1. Lay down mulch or grass clippings. By keeping the soil covered in a loose layer of mulch and/or grass clippings in between your plants, it will provide the necessary hunting ground for hunting spiders. All the loose mulch and/or grass clippings provide spots for hunting spiders to hide and wait it out for that perfect moment to ambush those unwanted pests in your garden. These hunting spiders do the best in the garden keeping populations of unwanted pest in check.
2. Make sure you’ve got plenty of native trees, lush shrubs, and perennial plants in your yard. By having these around your yard, you will not only offer garden spiders habitat and space to work on their webs and catch all those pesky insects, but you’ll also lure more insects too – especially of the beneficial variety!

See this wasn’t so bad, was it? By learning more about these beneficial critters, we can slowly change our fear of spiders. They provide so many benefits and are part of the ecosystem and life cycle. Consider familiarizing yourself with the spiders in your yard and garden. When you spot a spider, log your observation on iNaturalist.ca to learn more about it!