I wish I could be chill about arachnid and gently release them outside as I could with other insects, however after being bit by a black widow as a child, having my arm puff up huge and have to go to hospital... I just cant remain chill about them. Heavy books is a downgrade from flame throwers and napalm lol.
Yeah that's pretty gnarly, sorry that you had to go through that, but I
am glad you survived. They say widows are most dangerous to children. I mean, I understand why people are so aggressive towards spiders, but I think some of that might just be social conditioning. Read an article once that noticed a certain phenomenon in where descendants from European countries were more likely to have arachnophobia than other cultures. I personally think spiders are beautiful (and occassionally cute), but they DO need to be given a healthy amount of respect and space. I mean, they almost never go out of their way to be mean to you (unless you live in Australia, then anything goes, because Australia). In fact, the only time a spider ever charged me, it was a Wolf Spider. Mean little suckers.
This is why i find the OP's wanton destruction of life offensive.
P.S.- I used to use torches to flush out black widows when i was young. Our outdoors area was infested with them, but it also means I grew up with them. And with the introduction of Brown Widows into much of North America, I'm more likely to relocate a Black Widow to somewhere safe these days. Brown Widows, as an invasive species, have offset the Black widows at an alarming rate, and it hasn't been by predation, they just pick the best spots to live faster than the Black Widows do, or something like that. Idk, I'll have to go look it up again. But there is a chance that animals (probably mostly birds would be my guess) that feed on Black Widows may not recognize Brown Widows the same way, and as such they may lose a portion of their food source. I wouldn't know, I'm not a biologist or conservationist, but as a citizen, I do my part and don't go out of my way to assist in the decline of the Black Widow's species, even though they technically are the more dangerous spider.
P.P.S.- Btw, ProTip: One of the Widow spider's natural predators is, of all the random things, Daddy Long Legs. Literally the least dangerous spider known to mankind. So if you are THAT concerned about Widows and such, and can tolerate these kinda cute little critters, then encourage the growth of (or at least don't kill off) Daddy Long Legs spiders. Part of this is because they both inhabit the same niche in the ecosystem as what is known as "cobweb spiders", and will often take over each other's nesting webs.