‘Dreaded’ Wolf Spider at our Compost Garden in Vancouver

Watch Heidi catch a Wolf Spider!

I spotted a rather large Wolf Spider in the compost toilet shed yesterday and knew that the gardeners wouldn’t be happy to come across it unexpectedly. Heidi volunteered to move the unwanted eight-eyed Arachnid and I caught the daring act on video.

During my 30 years at the Compost Garden, various staff have shared with me their fear of the spider, a great insect hunter. Theirs is a common phobia, some feeling it more than others.

I asked Sheryl, one of our City Farmer gardeners, why she is unnerved by the Wolf Spider.

“Is it a mouse or a spider? Is what I ask when I see something dark move out of the corner of my eye. Wolf spiders are big and move fast. And it seems (to me) that they are always running at me, which is why I’d prefer it to be a mouse because at least they always seem to be scared and run away. Wolf spiders also appear when you least expect it, opening a door, under a blanket or towel, behind things hunting for their prey.”

And Farhat our wormshop instructor says:

“There are always quite a few them in the tool shed along with many of their nests. I’m always a bit worried one is going to land on my head while I’m feeding my worms or getting the supplies for a wormshop out.” )

And from Laura, a long time City Farmer gardener:

“Wolf spiders: they are not like wolves at all. They are not regal, fluffy or dog-like – all things I can admire in an animal. Instead they are long-legged, fast and menacing. They look like they could outrun me. Okay, that also sounds a bit like a wolf, but still they give me the creeps. I can deal with small spiders, but somehow when they get big enough to warrant their own seat at the dinner table, that is my cue to freak out.”

And Sharon, our head gardener, remembers one spider incident 40 years ago:

“We were remodeling the house and the floor in the living room was the subfloor, which had lots of cracks. I was walking in my bare feet when I stepped on one of these spiders. It didn’t get squished, but was trapped between my toes and was frantically trying to escape. I was frantically trying to shake it free! I was hopping around the living room, screaming! Finally, it fell out. I can’t remember what happened after that!”

Sharon’s spider tale #2:

When I was quite young, we lived in a house that my Dad was building, so some of the floors were not finished. Spiders would come up from the crawl space. During the night I would dream that a spider was walking across my pillow towards me, and I would wake up screaming! Mom would come in and turn on the light, but I wasn’t convinced all was well and as soon as she turned the light out, I would sit up until I finally fell asleep.

Sharon’s spider tale #3:

When I was just married in the early 60′s, we lived in an apartment. Sometimes, a spider would come in the window. One night as I turned the blankets back, I saw a spider. I couldn’t catch it, lost sight of it, and immediately panicked! There I was in my baby doll pj’s, with my big fluffy slippers (Laverne and Shirley style!)… so I quickly put my husband’s work boots on in case the spider was somewhere on the floor. I pulled every blanket off the bed without finding the beast, but as I put everything back, I found the spider in the last blanket where it had been hiding all along. I attacked with fury! Poor thing never knew what hit it.

And our “Bug Lady”, Maria, has a spider story:

I moved to Vancouver in 1996 and lived in a typical Kitsilano rental house with 5 other transients. My room was in the basement with 2 others and we shared a bathroom. We always used the shower upstairs and the tub in the basement was only ever used by one of my roommates who enjoyed a good soak.

On getting to know him, me being a “Bug Girl”, I learned he had a a fear of spiders. I asked one day how he could take such longs baths knowing that the broken corner tile of the tub had a deep dark hole where a huge spider lived. He looked at me in shock and replied he never noticed it. He always took his glasses/contacts out when soaking.

The next day I came home after work to a chemical smell in the basement. It seemed my roommate couldn’t bare the thought of an eight-legged tub mate and took matters into his own hands by scouring the cleaning cupboard and pouring a chemical cocktail down the hole, which included, but was not limited, to a foaming oven cleaner!

I was so mad at him. I knew he didn’t realize that random household cleaners, when mixed, can be lethal. I had to do something to get him back. So while he was out to work at his night shift, I visited a local dollar store and purchased the largest most realistic plastic spider I could find and strategically placed it just underneath the side of his pillow. I went to bed snickering, that will show him. I worked days and would be gone before he was up.

Later that night around 3 am when he got home from the club he worked at, I was awoken to a loud cry, a whack and a grunt, a whack and a grunt over and over again. Seems that plastic spider was killed by a skateboard in the middle of the night!

Bug Trapper

An ideal device for trapping flies, wasps, spiders, etc.
You simply place the transparent pyramid over the insect on a wall or window, rotate it 180° (causing a door to slide closed), carry the insect outside, rotate the pyramid 180° again (letting the door slide open) and release the captive.

Find here at Lee Valley Tools.

More on the Wolf Spider here.