Sowbug Killer/Woodlouse Hunter Spider

[applestar]

This week's daily forecasts are 70/50°F -- it's just about time to bring the container plants inside for the winter. I'm starting with the ones that will find even daytime high of 70°F to be too cool, and nightly dip in low 50's to upper 40's would cause them to plunge into dormancy. (some of my plants have, in fact, been out too late and have started to lose color)

Today, I was knocking pill bugs/sowbugs out of the drain holes. I don't kill off the soil food web in the containers before bringing them inside like some people do, so I don't mind a few pill bugs -- I just avoid bringing in a massive colony. I brush the clinging ones from the outside of the pots, knock them out of the holes by thumping the containers against wood frame surrounding the brink patio, and poke the stubborn ones out with a stick.

Well, there was a light colored lump inside a drain hole that wouldn't come out, and I was getting ready to use a stick, when I realized it was a Sowbug Killer Spider.

I saw one of these in the garden mulch last year or the year before and looked it up because it looks vaguely threatening -- maybe the pale tan abdomen, the red legs, or the big fangs -- but was relieved and happy to realize there was another valuable member of the Garden Patrol at work.

I left this spider in the drainage hole. She is more than welcome to come in and help control the pill bug population. I just have to remember she is there so I don't accidentally scare her into biting me.

[ccar2000]

I think I have seen these here in the High Desert, thanks for providing the link and info. Typically I only kill the Black Widows and Wind Scorpions. Any other spiders I find I either leave them outside or evict them from the house.