Warm, dry weather has produced an abundant crop of rodents and insects this year.

Now, its time for the spiders. It will be a boom year for lots of arachnoids, but experts at Utah State University say don't over-react.

Science Specialist Ed Yeates has the story from Logan.

On the shores of the Great Salt Lake in 1991 and 1994, thousands of spiders literally joined webs to consume millions of insects. The arachnids were everywhere on the harbor, inside and outside of boats, hanging on railings and under the pier.

Humans seemed almost out of place here.

Well, this could be that cyclical year again in which they, the spiders, come back en mass.

DR. JAY KARREN, USU ENTTOMOLOGIST: "SINCE I'VE SEEN ALL OF THESE INSECTS ALL OVER THE STATE. THEY'VE BEEN REPORTING TO ME THESE INCREASED POPULATIONS OF INSECTS, AND I SEE NO REASON WHY THE SPIDERS SHOULDN'T FOLLOW SUIT."

ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: ITS NOT APPARENT NOW, BUT AS WE MOVE INTO JULY AND AUGUST THE SMALL JUVENILE SPIDERS WE CAN'T SEE WILL GROW INTO ADULTHOOD, AND THEY COULD BE ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Laura Bennett has spiders all over the place in her apartment now, but that's because she's collecting them as part of a research project at U.S.U.

Her geatest fear is that people will kill the very friend nature may give us this year to consume the oversupply of bugs.

LAURA BENNETT, USU STUDENT: "IF YOU GO AND LOOK AT THEIR WEBS IN THE MORNING BEFORE SOME OF THEM CUT THE DEAD INSECTS OUT, YOU CAN COUNT HUNDREDS - ESPECIALLY OF THE LITTLE GNATS AND MOSQUITOES."

"THEY ARE A NATURAL PREDATOR FOR INSECTS, AND SO LEAVE THEM ALONE. IF THEY'RE NOT BOTHERING YOU. LEAVE 'EM ALONE..LET THEM DO THEIR JOB."

Dr. Karren says people should only become concerned when spiders like the black widow or hobo spider move inside where children -- say in a day care center -- are playing.