Spider

How to recognise it

Everything from orb-web builders across the beans to tiny hunting spiders on leaf surfaces. In a garden they are all on your side.

Mistaken for

Killed on sight out of dislike rather than any evidence of harm. Webs are cleared away as untidy.

What it eats

Whitefly, Aphids, Green shield bug, Grape berry moth, Cabbage white caterpillar

How to attract it

Structure and stillness: standing stems over winter, permanent plantings, mulch, and not clearing everything in autumn.

Plants that help

Straw or compost mulch

Lifecycle

Most species live one season; egg sacs overwinter in stems and debris.

Months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November

The thing people get wrong

Spiders are the broadest-spectrum predator in the garden and cost nothing. Every web you leave standing between the bean poles is a trap catching whitefly and moths day and night, indefinitely, for free.