# So, releasing spiders outside kills them?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 18, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184 "2026-05-18T16:56:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/81 "2026-05-19T15:33:51Z")
Yes, I think that’s the official name for the ones in my backyard! 😡
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### Author:  [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/82 "2026-05-19T15:34:39Z")
As long as they stay outside! And off of me and my stuff…
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/83 "2026-05-19T15:36:07Z")
They can’t even go inside at night? while you sleep? to… hunt mosquitos before they bite you? perhaps valiantly keeping watch standing in your face… walking over your sleeping body… keeping it safe…
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### Author:  [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/84 "2026-05-19T17:46:21Z")
Thanks for that visual. No sleep tonight!
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### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/85 "2026-05-19T19:29:34Z")
Absolutely LOVE that scene.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/86 "2026-05-19T19:34:09Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> walking over your sleeping body… keeping it safe…
“accidentally” falling into your mouth…
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/87 "2026-05-19T19:41:10Z")
“oops”
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/88 "2026-05-20T02:44:52Z")
It’s now illegal for me to relocate possums (pissing, defecating, protected native animals). Since they are territorial, and will kill to defend their territory.
But I’ve got to wonder if they can survive anyway when evicted from my roof space, since the whole reason they want to live in my roof space is that they haven’t got anywhere else safe to nest
Only the hereditary landed class is permitted to _deliberately_ kill possums. I’ve heard the hope/ fantasy that people from that group could go into the pest-control business.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/89 "2026-05-20T03:33:02Z")
Ok, I found a real citation. (The New Yorker published an article on spiders last year, but I could not locate the OP’s claim in it.)
> **[Is It OK to Throw House Spiders Outside?](https://www.livescience.com/55270-can-indoor-spiders-survive-outside.html)**
>
> Is moving a spider outside an act of compassion, or a death sentence?
2 perspectives. The first is from Rod Crawford, the curator of arachnids at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle:
> If the spider is a native to the area, it will likely be able to survive outside, Crawford said. But if the spider is a transplant that’s become a house spider — even if its ancestors made the voyage to the “new” place decades to hundreds of years ago — odds are, the spider will perish outside, Crawford said.
The second is by Rick Vetter, a retired research associate of entomology at the University of California, Riverside:
> "Some spiders have chosen the inside of a house because that is where they prefer to live… “However, a counterargument to that is, ‘Well, before there were houses, where did the spiders live?’”
> They lived outside, Vetter contended.
> “I would say, toss them outside,” Vetter said. “That’s where they came from. They might die, but then again, they might find [suitable habitat](https://www.livescience.com/21818-spiders-scoprions-exhibit.html).”
Me: They also might make a tasty meal for other fauna.
* * *
Happily, I have not reviewed the remarks of the OP’s nonexpert.
* * *
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Am I supposed to feel more empathy for the spider than for the other bugs they kill…you know-the ones that _don’t_ leave dead webs filled with carcasses lying in wait for people to walk into?
You are suppose to feel more empathy for the critters who eat the critters you like less than them. Cite: mfm, who likes spiders generally speaking but who on occasion tosses them out the door.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/90 "2026-05-20T03:53:08Z")
It’s the circle of life. Spiders die today or next week, eaten or stomped on or poisoned. I’m not sure we need to be too.precious when they breed in sufficient numbers to manage the trials of life.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/91 "2026-05-20T10:24:26Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> Loafing spiders?
Band name!
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/92 "2026-05-20T13:21:00Z")
I see a lot more “house spiders” in what i would consider “protected outdoor spaces”, like garages and sheds than actually indoors. More prey, more access for them, probably.
Anyway, here’s a compromise. Don’t take that spider from your bedroom to the street, take it to the garage or similar.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/93 "2026-05-20T13:54:02Z")
Yup. Our homes are complex established ecosystems that include some likely fairly steady population of spiders mostly living in spaces that we don’t see them, and some population of their various prey. And don’t get me going on the stable huge bacterial and even viral microbiome. The removal of an individual predator whether it survives or not is not going to impact the ongoing population of any of its components to any measurable degree.
Flick it away, crush it, let it be, whatever. I vote let it be but will remove to outside my wife’s sight for her stated preference.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/94 "2026-05-20T13:56:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> Anyway, here’s a compromise. Don’t take that spider from your bedroom to the street, take it to the garage or similar.
…so feed your house spiders to the garage spiders?
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### Author:  [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/95 "2026-05-20T14:20:38Z")
they cant live inside my house either.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/96 "2026-05-20T14:43:19Z")
I think the point is that if you really care about the life of the spider, don’t disturb it. Otherwise, just step on it. Moving it has the same result, but is a lot more work.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/97 "2026-05-20T15:30:18Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> (The New Yorker published an article on spiders last year, but I could not locate the OP’s claim in it.)
What claim is that exactly? I posted that it’s been said by some knowledgeable folks (supported by one of your citations, even) that spiders have evolved to live indoors and would die if released outdoors.
My factual question was, if true, how do they get into new houses.
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#):
>
> Happily, I have not reviewed the remarks of the OP’s nonexpert.
Not sure what this means. I never claimed the posted video was by an expert. I even posted
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> Or so says this guy:
I’m not a spider expert and never claimed I was. This is Factual Questions, a place people come to to ask question about stuff they want to learn about.
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/98 "2026-05-20T15:30:45Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I think the point is that if you really care about the life of the spider, don’t disturb it.
I am on this side. Spiders are sort of weird and creepy, sure. But I eat weird and creepy crustaceans without a second thought (thanks, lobster, thanks crayfish). I’d eat spider if it ever appeared on a menu.
But other than that remote possibility - and I am aware that certain cultures do eat spiders - the spider in my room is my friend.
In any case, I am slightly sentimental about spiders, having read E. B. White’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” at a young age.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/99 "2026-05-20T15:31:18Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I think the point is that if you really care about the life of the spider, don’t disturb it. Otherwise, just step on it. Moving it has the same result, but is a lot more work.
My wife would contend it helps you get your steps in! 😉
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [May 20, 2026, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-releasing-spiders-outside-kills-them/1030184/100 "2026-05-20T15:39:18Z")
> [@scudsucker](#):
>
> > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
> >
> > I think the point is that if you really care about the life of the spider, don’t disturb it.
>
> I am on this side. Spiders are sort of weird and creepy, sure.
I was in an impromptu meeting with my manager a week or so ago. All of a sudden, mid-sentence, she exclaimed, “There’s a spider!”
I turned around and, sure enough, there was a spider lowering itself down from the ceiling. I turned back to continue the meeting and she asked. “aren’t you going to kill it?”
Nope, I replied, It lives here with me. And went on to explain how spiders are a good thing. 😊
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