We Need More Spiders ...

... because we have way too many biting flies.

Like Black Horse Flies (Tabanus atratus).

Black is a good color as this is definitely one of the bad guys flying about in the yard.

Here's a US 25¢ piece for scale. This is a big fly.

Until recently, the next place west from ours had horses. We don't know why the horse are gone, but the flies prey on large mammals. And Patty and I both qualify as such.

And from the "those which live by the bite, die by the bite" this critter has another critter biting it.

A mite, for which my friend John Maxwell suggested the mite might be in the Suborder Parasitengona, in the Subcohort  Erythraeia.

So maybe, we need more mites?