LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) - The Johnny Appleseed Metro Park District getting local kids familiar with some eight-legged friends on Wednesday.
The lesson for the kids was all about spiders, from the hammock spider to the striped wolf spider, learning about the body parts of a spider, their diet and what kinds of spiders are found here in Ohio.
The kids had an arts and crafts period as well getting to make their own spiders and webs to take home with them. Finally the kids took to the trails outside for a spider hike and scavenger hunt as they tried to find spiders native in the Allen County region. While most of us see spiders as creepy and scary, park officials want to remind people that in reality spiders are a crucial part of the ecosystem and keep other pesky bugs from being overpopulated.
"Spiders are a hard one to talk about, because so many people are afraid of spiders, but there's not really a big reason to be scared of them," said Haley Williams, a naturalist with the Johnny Appleseed Metro Park District. "I know people know about black widows and the brown recluse, and those can be dangerous, but it's really the only two that are dangerous potentially, and the rest, everyone has venom, but not harmful to humans. We don't really have to be too afraid and they do a great service, because they eat all of the really irritating bugs that we don't like, like the mosquitoes and the flies that we don't want around us. They kind of control those populations for us."
To learn about more upcoming events from the Johnny Appleseed Metro Parks District, you can head to their website.
