Spiders In My House

Often times when I come across a spider in my home, I take a few minutes to watch her as she walks carefully across her web, tenuously checking each strand to see that it is placed impeccably along her web.  I lose myself in thought as the philosophical questions regarding the spider's ultimate fate arise within me. 

The Life of a Spider

A spider's nervous system is surprisingly simple for the complex tasks it allows a spider to accomplish.  We know that spiders are capable of learning cause and effect, and when something is amiss in their webs, or if something they are doing to fix a web is only contributing to the problem, they drop their present task and instead focus on a different approach to overcoming the problem. 

We can't say for certain whether or not a spider feels pain, but if they do, we can say with some certainty that they attach no emotion to it as humans do.  They simply do not have the ability, as their nervous systems are composed of two very basic ganglia, or clumps of nerve cells, and no brain capable of true thought. 

They are fascinating to watch, though.  As artists in the medium of silk, they weave fantastic webs as they work their spinners behind them, and deftly move their eight legs across those thin strands like an expert dancer.  The slightest disturbance in a web sends them into a frenzy, either fiendishly approaching the disturbance hoping for nourishment, or running away to avoid destruction.  Those who don't spin webs are equally fascinating, as they roam across our windows, talented hunters ready to pounce upon their next meal.

Most spiders wouldn't be considered menaces, as their diet consists of all the other insects that share our home like unwanted roommates.  I often find the hollowed-out exoskeleton of house centipedes in the webs in the basement, and breathe a sigh of relief knowing there's one less of them trying to crawl up my leg as I do my laundry.  Some spiders are dangerous, such as the brown recluse and the black widow, the venom of which is unapologetic and indiscriminate.  But for the most part, the spiders in our homes are harmless.

Is it right to kill a spider?

Life is here because our Creator, in all His wisdom that is often times out of our realm of understanding, has decided that the life is meant to be here.  All living beings are under this divine purview, and all the non-human creatures were put under the stewardship of mankind.  How far does this responsibility extend?  Are we then allowed to do to these creatures whatever we feel, or must there be some ethics involved?

Certainly, we must remain ethical in our treatment of the creatures around us to prevent needless suffering as well as we can.  But if a creature is incapable of higher thinking, is incapable of fear, feels only rudimentary pain, like a spider, does it truly suffer?

Is it right, then, to kill a spider?

Conclusion

I don't know if it's right or not to kill a spider, and usually by the time all these thoughts have run through my head, I'm already carrying a tissue to the trash containing what was once a spider building a web in the corner of my house, and am on to my next task.  They're creepy.

Plus, they started this war by hanging out in our beds.