I use vermiculite a lot when propagating, and have a large sack of it in the potting shed. One day recently I dipped my hand into the sack and came out with a handful of vermiculite that seemed to be covered in a fine web. I thought this a bit odd but used it anyway; ran out, dipped in my hand again, and brought up more webby material. The next time a huge spider ran over my hand and out of the sack and I screamed loud enough to bring Mr. P running.
Now, I grew up in Australia, so I fancy myself used to spiders, cockroaches, and flies. I once spent a rather uncomfortable night, when a student, sleeping in a friend's spider-infested room, and endured an entire summer house-sitting a flat that was so badly infested with cockroaches that they woke me in the night, scuttling over the sheets. And now, in an old house in the English countryside, I usually wack an average of one spider a night.
But I'd rather not have them taking up residence in my potting shed. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that vermiculite is not just a sterile material for horticulture, it's also a sterile nesting material for arachnoids. I've replaced it, and housed it in sealed containers instead.
Now, I grew up in Australia, so I fancy myself used to spiders, cockroaches, and flies. I once spent a rather uncomfortable night, when a student, sleeping in a friend's spider-infested room, and endured an entire summer house-sitting a flat that was so badly infested with cockroaches that they woke me in the night, scuttling over the sheets. And now, in an old house in the English countryside, I usually wack an average of one spider a night.
But I'd rather not have them taking up residence in my potting shed. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that vermiculite is not just a sterile material for horticulture, it's also a sterile nesting material for arachnoids. I've replaced it, and housed it in sealed containers instead.
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