But I came to praise the spider not squash her. She is here to do a job and she does it very well, so well that the ecosystem as it is could not function without her.
Instead of killing these creatures whenever we see them, we should consider them custodians that will only accept as payment the bugs that compete with us for our living space and our food. Without the spider, those bugs would win--easily. The free service they provide for us--absolutely essential to our continued survival and that's all the thanks they get from us--killed. We display the most pathetic fear of them. We are hundreds of time bigger and thousands of time heavier and we act like the biggest cowards when confronted by a creature that does us no harm when left alone.
They can live without us but we cannot live without them. This is their world, not ours. We are their guests for as long as they feel like putting up with us. They are not disgusting poisoners--we are. And we had better check our arrogance and grotesque fear at the door and starting giving the spiders the respect they deserve. They'll outlast us and that's good. Most of us don't realize just how good that is.