Winter squash is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. It is also a very good source of thiamin, vitamin B6, potassium, magnesium, and manganese, and a good source of iron.
Spiders are, for the most part, such generalist feeders that they kill many useful insects as well as many pest species, however because pest species are by their nature more numerous than beneficial species they are still effective. They are of great value to the environment.
The plant provides a home, and sometimes food, for the ants. In exchange, the ants defend the plant from herbivores and sometimes competing plants. Ant wastes provide organic fertilizer. The majority of plant species have various kinds of fungi associated with their root systems in a kind of mutualistic symbiosis known as mycorrhiza.