Posted on 09/05/2010 9:17:53 AM PDT by JoeProBono
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.- A Florida bug expert says banana spiders up to 4 inches long, common in the state's parks and recreational areas, aren't dangerous, but are nutritious.
The spiders are native to the southeast and tropics, and are most prominent in late summer and early fall, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel said Saturday.
"They are worth their weight in gold in the number of insect pests they consume," said Clive Pinnock, manager of the Okeeheelee Nature Center. He said they feed on mosquitoes and other insects that plague summertime visitors.
Beyond consuming mosquitoes, the spiders have another benefit.
Glavis Edwards, spider expert at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the female banana spider is especially nutritious because of the egg mass in its belly.
Even considering their nutritional value, parks officials in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale try to relocate the spiders away from playground and picnic areas.
"I'm sure it would freak some people out, but they are typically harmless," Fort Lauderdale spokeswoman Shannon Vezina said.
Nutritious or no, if I saw that at a picnic the scream would be loud and long.
I don’t care how harmless they are, those things are creepy as hell and I couldn’t live anywhere with so many bugs, especially spiders, and especally those spiders!
Are they a good source of protein?
If that thing bit you you would get two, maybe three steps off before you hit the ground and within 30 seconds it would be feasting on your brain goo. I’ve seen it time and time again ...
Mmmm... delicious banana-flavour spiders...nomnomnomnomn..
Tastes just like...chicken?
Have had one or two of these spiders on the corners of my house for the past three years. One of them positioned itself right in the flight path of honeybees returning to their hives in my backyard. I had to remove this one’s web. Saw it on the other side of the house about a month later. I just moved another one last week. Colorful creatures, these. Big, too.
Most spiders are actually quite beneficial because they eat the vermin and other bugs that we find so disgusting.
Must be the taste of all those humans they’ve feasted on...
NO ME GUSTA!
What a strange article.
It speaks of their exterminator abilities on other insects and then dangles their nutritional content without explanation, I clicked the link - Not even a lousy Recipe.....
“Most spiders are actually quite beneficial because they eat the vermin and other bugs that we find so disgusting.”
Can we send a couple hundred to DC?
It looks like the spiders we have on the Texas Gulf coast we call ‘writer spiders’. The make a design in the middle of their webs that looks like script. Harmless but big and scary looking.
Spiders are not particularly attractive creatures but the majority of them are beneficial.
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