Dear colleagues,
Having done some further research on the subject of spiders suseptibility
to pesticides I have found that there is definitely two sides to this
story.  Research done in India and Israel has concluded that some spiders
are more sensitive to certain pesticides than their harmful insect
brethren and agricultural crops sprayed with these chemicals will actually
end up with more harmful insects because of the spiders being taken out of
the foodchain.
Other sources state that some pesticides have very little effect on
spiders and in order to kill them you have to use very specific poisons.
I guess that this reinforces John's point that use of general pesticides
should be avoided.
There are dangerous spiders and Indigo's tale of woe sounds like an awful
experience.  Black widow and brown recluse spiders should be eliminated-
no arguement here (but maybe with a vacuum cleaner rather than toxic
chemicals.)  But (can you tell I like spiders?) all other spiders are
really beneficial.  I once had an exhibit case full of Kachina dolls that
had a small beetle infestation.  After consulting a conservator, I
released a wolf spider in the case (they do not make webs and do not eat
the materials that the dolls were made of.)  We also put a small label in
the case saying SPIDER AT WORK and explaining that the spider had been
hired by the museum to take care of this problem.  Kids loved it.  And it
worked- the infestation was eliminated.
Sincerely,
David Ryan
Registrar
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
www.cspm.org

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).