Britain`s Spiders – A Field Guide (WILDGuides of Britain & Europe, 21)

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When it's a good summer, but not bone dry, it's good for a lot of insects, which is the garden spider's main food. Hine explains, 'In years like this more of them reach their maximum size and there's enough food to support more of them.'

Detailed accounts and more than 700 stunning photographs highlight key identification features for each genus and species, and include information on status, behaviour and habitats Jones-Walters, L. M. 1989. Keys to the families of British spiders. AIDGAP. Shrewsbury: Field Studies Council. A very useful key when first starting out with spiders. Placing a spider in the correct family from general appearance becomes easier with experience, but is an essential first step in naming the species. With warmer weather, we keep our doors and windows open longer into spider season, and let more of the wandering males in. How about the centuries-old method of using conkers to repel spiders? There's no evidence to say it works. There are many pesticide sprays that you can use to kill insects and spiders but we would not recommend the use of chemicals. At night, try not to leave windows open in rooms where lights are on – these attract insects, which then attract spiders. What to look for: The goldenrod crab spider has some colour variation, appearing white, yellow or green, They often have red lines on either side of their abdomen. Their abdomen is bulbous and their front legs have a crab-like appearance, hence their name. The female is much larger than the male.

Love them or loathe them, many garden spiders may be found inside the house as autumn progresses. If you're not keen on spiders, the smell of citrus such as lemon or orange is thought to repel them in a wildlife-friendly way. Jones, D. 1983. The Country Life guide to spiders of Britain and northern Europe. Littlehampton: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. Out of print. This Opticron Hand Lens contains a high quality 23mm doublet lens, made of glass and provides excellent distortion-free magnification. The 10x magnification is recommended for general observations and this magnifier is the one most commonly recommended for all types of fieldwork.

Now in a comprehensively revised and updated new edition, Britain’s Spiders is a guide to all 38 British families, focussing on spiders that can be identified in the field. Illustrated with photographs, it is designed to be accessible to a wide audience, including those new to spider identification. Spiders are also unique in the way they travel and disperse. They do this by ‘ballooning’ – aerial dispersal through the spinning of silk which is caught up by rising air currents on warm days following cold weather. The spider positions itself at a high point, such as the top of a grass stem or a fence post, so that it is exposed to air currents and spins strands of silk from its spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen. Some of this silk may be caught up in the breeze and the spider ‘takes off’. Adult money spiders are light enough to be carried for some distance, in other families of larger spiders it is the immature stages (spiderlings) that balloon. Ballooning was noted by Charles Darwin when he observed silken threads in the rigging of HMS Beagle when some 60 miles off the Argentinian coast – ‘I repeatedly observed the same kind of small spider, either when placed or having crawled on some little eminence, elevate its abdomen, send forth a thread, and then sail away horizontally, but with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable.’ It also explains why some of the first organisms recorded on a newly emerged volcanic island, such as Anak Krakatau, are spiders ballooning in from the nearest mainland. Four spot orb-weaver ( Araneus quadratus) The four spot orb weaver spider usually weaves webs between adjacent plants/Credit: Getty For example, females of the garden spider ( Araneus diadematus) are very large at this time of year and make conspicuous orb webs among vegetation and on the outside of buildings.The most humane way to capture a spider is to trap it beneath a wide-rimmed glass and then slide a piece of card under the glass to make a lid and contain the spider inside. Then release the spider unharmed into the garden. Do spiders crawl up plugholes? There are around 650 species of spider in the UK, ranging from those with a leg span of just a couple of millimetres, to the 12cm leg span of the cardinal spider. Spiders are predators, and they use an impressive pair of fangs to catch prey, and to introduce venom. All spiders have fangs but not all spiders have fangs that are able to pierce human skin. Consequently, there are relatively few UK species that are able to bite us in any meaningful way.