Cottage Q&A
QUESTIONI need your help regarding the infiltration of what I think were dock spiders inside our unfinished cottage last spring, crawling behind the vapour barrier. They were greyish brown with spots or stripes and the biggest ones were about seven centimetres in diameter. I am grossed out at the sight of them and afraid of what company will think if they find one in the shower. Please help. I'm ready to pack up and leave.
ANSWER
To field your question, we called upon Spider-Man, a.k.a. Tom Mason, curator of invertebrates and birds at the Toronto Zoo. Mason nixed the idea of these arachnids being dock spiders, Dolomedes scriptus, because they tend to stay near water. Mason believes there are probably other species finding their way into your cottage, including the forest spider, Dolomedes tenebrosus, a.k.a. the fishing spider, first cousin to the dock spider. It's easy to confuse the two. Both have a body size of more than three centimetres, but the dock spider, "a big, long-legged, good-looking spider," according to Mason, has a longer leg span. Unlike the dock spider, the forest spider will overwinter in the crack of an exterior wall. "The trouble is, spiders just aren't that bright," Mason explains. If the forest spider follows the wrong crack and ends up inside the building, come spring it can't problem-solve its way outside. So it ambles around your cottage, looking for food. These spiders don't like being stuck inside any more than you enjoy having them ambush you in the shower stall - they tend to shrivel and die indoors, or find their way out eventually. Mason recommends that you finish the cottage and see if the situation improves.
In the meantime, the spiders aren't about to form a posse and attack you in the night, so reconsider brandishing that can of Raid. "Their tendency to bite is low," Mason insists. "They won't come after anything as big as us because they don't want to get hurt." And since they are predators, spiders hunt other creepy crawlies in your cottage. Maybe your guests will think that's actually a good thing.
* Published in the March 2006 issue of Cottage Life
