There are a lot of them in my gardens, too. They don't creep me out very much, I like that they're beneficial to insect control. I deal with them, they're part of the whole gardening experience. ;)

Hi Kathy...I completely understand your response. I rarely feel any disturbance by any of the creatures I find in the yard, but there seems to be a threshold of what feels comfortable to me. We have spiders, but haven't really run into them in the soil. I am always happy to see them setting up house in a favorite shrub so that I know they may keep the bad bugs at bay, but I have a healthy respect for them and keep my distance. Any bug in the yard that is suddenly in larger than normal numbers does trigger that grossed out feeling of wanting to get away from them, for me. I think you might want to ask about this on the Organic Gardening forum. I haven't a clue what to suggest. I bet they might have a suggestion.

Good luck..
pm2

The only spiders I don't like are fast spiders and those black spiders who can jump. But I only kill them if they are in the house. (Sometimes I take them out to the treeline.)

Slow spiders are my garden pals, but their fast cousins creep me out.

I think the numbers will decrease as the season progresses, you were probably working in an area where a hatch (or lots of hatches) had just occurred.

These guys are your pals, and indicate to some extent that you have a healthy micro-ecosystem in your garden. Don't fool with that - just work in another area for awhile.

every year I get lots spiders in my shade house and I let them stay there it help keeps the unwanted bugs off my plants if they don't bite me I don't smash them, there great little friends to have around and the little babies sould only be around for a short time the will find new homes some place else.

Bear

Nothing quite like bending over to pick a tomato and driving your face into a huge invisible spider web. Doesn't matter if it's occupied or not, you're gonna freak. Shades of Indiana Jones.

My kitten is about 9 months old now. Since the weather is nice, we have started letting her outside with us. She runs around while we are gardening. Little B. is an animal with a lot of spirit, and you can see her joyfully doing laps around the house. I never had a cat that did laps before.

Since letting her out, I have saved a little bit on the food bill. I was horrified the first day when she ate several wasps and a bee or too. I know we want to preserve our bees, but I was concerned that she would be stung while patting down her little buzzy cookies. I wish I had some films of her throwing her head back and crunching down a large black spider or two. She spends almost all of her outside time eating bugs.

Perhaps they will create a bug eating breed of cats, and those who cannot keep chickens will celebrate.