No pests here! · The Potted Garden Society

No pests here!

I mostly grow herbs in pots and I love it when some of my spidery friends help to keep the pests at bay... A mama huntsman spider (also called rain spiders and quite large - they can be up to about 35mm body length so of course look much bigger with their long legs) hung her egg sac below some of my pots of herbs which were standing on 2 upturned crates - I didn't see the nest because it was well concealed so the first I knew was when loads of little spiderlings appeared on the pepper plant (1st pic). A couple of days later after they had moulted and got a little bit bigger they moved on to some of the near-by pots - the second pic is a thyme plant, which shows how small the spiderlings are. Please remember - not all the small creatures you find on your plants are bad for them - please don't go spraying and squishing! Also remember - spiders are not as scary as many people think - they just want to get away from us and many benefit us by chomping pests.

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