NATIVES

No Big, Hairy Deal

Wolf spiders might look scary, but they’re good to have around.

By CAROLINE KETTLEWELL | Illustration by CARLES GARCÍA O’DOWD

IF YOU’RE LARGE, HAIRY, AND EIGHTlegged, it’s true that nobody short of a true arachno-enthusiast is ever likely to exclaim with delight when you scuttle across the floor. But for all that, native Virginia wolf spiders are large, fast-moving, aggressive hunters—really, there’s no reason to fear them—even if, like one unfortunate Virginian, you wake up in the night to find one on your neck. As she told the Virginian-Pilot, when she grabbed it and threw it across the room, “it hit the wall with a thud.”

“There’s a human tendency to think that the bigger it is, the more dangerous it might be,” says Theresa “Tree” Dellinger of Virginia Tech’s Insect ID Lab. But while wolf spiders, if handled, can and do deliver a bite that can be painful and in some people provoke an allergic reaction, their venom doesn’t pose any risk to most people. And they’re a beneficial spider to have in your garden, with a preference for dining on bugs and even other spiders.

Still, Dellinger acknowledges, a wolf spider in the bedroom might be a bridge too far for most. “If you have a phobia about spiders, then that is the most important thing in the room for you right then and there.”

Wolf spiders are one of the world’s most common spiders, in the family Lycosidae (from the Greek word for “wolf”), and according to Dellinger there are approximately 240 species of wolf spiders in North America alone. The largest commonly found in Virginia is the palm-sized Carolina wolf spider (apparently the official state spider of South Carolina), which can have a body of more than an inch in length and a leg span of as much as four inches.

No Charlotte of the web, this spider neither spins nor waits. Instead, says Dellinger, it is an ambush predator that roams in search of prey. And wolf spiders are fast, given to sudden bursts of speed for chasing down a passing cricket or beetle. “It is really startling when you see one dart out suddenly,” says Delinger.

They are typically more active at night, and, Dellinger notes, their eyes—of which they have eight—have a reflective layer in the back and are “pretty large for spiders” (all the better to see in the dark). So if you happen to be lying on the ground on a summer’s eve, shining a flashlight into the grass, you might catch sight of a cluster of shiny spider eyes staring back at you.

If wolf spiders present no threat to people, they do, however, spell a nasty doom for their prey. Once captured, the day’s menu special is quickly subdued with a bite. The spider’s venom begins breaking down and liquefying the tissues of the victim, and then the spider can “suck out those juices,” says Dellinger. “It’s like an insect smoothie.”

These arachnids are common backyard spiders, and during the day they will shelter under mulch or leaf litter, where you might sometimes surprise one while working in your garden. And because they are usually found around the house, they occasionally find their way inside the house— particularly into basements, sheds, garages, and other ground-level spaces. But if one’s instinct, on sighting a big, hairy spider, is to rush for a broom or other death-dealing implement, keep in mind a unique aspect of the wolf-spider life cycle.

There’s a tender, maternal side to these spiders; females of the species carry their egg sac with them. And when dozens of spiderlings hatch, they all crawl on mama’s back, where they hang out for a few weeks until they’re ready to roam on their own. The thing is, however, that at the kind of distance you might stand if you can’t stand spiders, a living coat of spiderlings might not be so apparent. But whack that mother with a broom, and suddenly all those babies scatter in a kind of exploding arachnova. That’s one reason not to kill them. But even if you’re only dealing with a single spider, it’s good to think before you thwack. “Spiders are very beneficial,” Dellinger points out. “They eat lots and lots of insects that we would rather not have in our house, and they are a very important part of the ecosystem.” At the ID Lab, she adds, “We try to remind people that insects, and bugs, and spiders are out there doing their own thing and serving their purposes in the greater good of the world.”

If wolf spiders present no threat to people, they do, however, spell a nasty doom for their prey. Insatiably curious, Caroline Kettlewell has written on many topics, from endurance athletes and electric cars to the delightful diversity of Virginia’s native flora and fauna, and she is the author of two works of nonfiction. CarolineKettlewell.com