Explosion of Spiders this Year in CT

[Roger Taylor]

Small light colored spiders are usually newly hatched, subadults, and they often darken when they get bigger. This time of year the big orb weavers and garden spiders are out, in my area. You likely had a great year for adult spiders last year, and you are seeing the result of all the 2004 eggsacks disgorging their young this summer. Spiders are not all bad. Here in CA I dont sweep webs off the eaves very often, as later in the summer they intercept hundreds of termites in their flying and colonizing stages, a very useful service, and spiders love to eat all sorts of wood-eating insects, and reduce fruit fly and biting insect populations. Since spiders lurk in holes and cracks in your siding and eaves, that tends to fend off more harmful insects, such as carpenter ants et al, at points where they normally enter the structure. Bottom line - be kind to arachnids, unless they are black widows or brown recluse spiders. Most are harmless, and helpful, and fun to watch. OK get them out of the studio, but leave them on the exterior walls, etc.

[tmguchi]

I'm not sure about CT, but in Seattle we've had an unusually dry/mild winter which several people are telling me is the reason it seems there are so many spiders this year. It seems like I am fighting a losing battle to keep the spider webs out of the basement.

On a similar note, I came home to find an upside-down tupperware sitting in the middle of the hallway. My wife had put it over a very large spider that she had nearly stepped on earlier in the evening. Upon searching the web we are fairly certain it is in the "hobo spider" family. Sounds like the bite can be quite nasty. I can't remember ever encountering one of these spiders in a house before.

-fm

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

I've lived in this house for forty years. We have not had a problem with spiders prior to June of this year.

I have been renovating the house, closing up walls that were rotted and open to the outside. Last summer, I replaced entire exterior walls with new framework and resheathed. the repaired area is air tight. The few spider's webs that used to form around a pilot lamp in the cellar stopped forming for a few months since this renovation.

Despite the improvement in the integrity of the building, this June, we started getting copious quantities of spiders reappearing like never before. I find cobwebs all over equipment in my adjoining studio everyday. Each day I clear off the cobwebs and the next day they are back! I get five years' worth of webs in just 24 hours now.

I am just wondering if there is an unusual cycle of spider reproduction in the northeast USA this year. What would explain this sudden explosion in spider population? These are very tiny spiders, not the big ones we usually see outside or used to see in the cellar. The big ones are gone, but now we have little tiny ones measuring a millimeter and a half across and are light beige/yellow in color. Why the sudden appearance of these?

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

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[Matt]

My house is on a lake, I get spiders every year. Massive webs all over the deck, rebuilt in a few hours if you tear em down.

Orkin was canvassing the neighborhood the other day, I signed up. They treated the inside and outside, and layed down some sort of chemical barrier around the house. ($89 a treatment, every other month).

I've seen a reduction, although there are still some around. It's gonna take some time to kill off the spiders food supply I guess.

I've lived in the house for 7 years, normally I just accept the spiders... but this year they are building an abnormal amount of nests.... thick white webs about 3" long x 1/2" wide ALL OVER THE PLACE.

So the war has begun.

[Doug Kanter]

Keep spraying, and you may be one of the casualties of your war. Have you gotten the precise names of what Mr Orkin uses, and done any research to find out when they were tested on humans to prove their safety?

[Jim Beaver]

I'm experiencing the same thing. I park my car, come back two hours later, and it's practically strapped to the ground with spider webs. They're in the house, on the house, and, I have no doubt, under the house in quantities I've never seen before. The difference is, I'm in southern California, not Connecticut.

Jim Beaver

[Norminn]

It might be worthwhile to check with your county extension service, in case they are the dangerous variety. They may also be increasing because they prey on something less desireable. Worth checking if it is an unusual condition.

[Doug Kanter]

More mosquitoes, more spiders, especially around light sources which attract mosquitoes.

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

It seems that CT is not the only area that's seeing an increase in these spiders, based on the response here. Oddly, the west coast has reported a surge in spider activity. So maybe it's something happening on a larger scale. I do have to get them out of the studio equipment though, especially the cameras, because they can foul up the tape drive mechanisms. Annoying in the other equipment, but less harmful. But geeze... I clean up and a few hours later, the cobwebs are back! That's a very interesting statement about the possibility that a certain desirable prey may be on the increase this year. I normally don't kill spiders, even in the house because I know they are great scavengers, but they used to respect my space and now these little guys are like wild children--getting into everything and anything--nothing is sacred to them--they desicrate it all. And the fact that my electronic equipment is being used as 'housing' now is not sitting well with me.

-- Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION ? FILM SCANNING ? DVD MASTERING ? AUDIO RESTORATION Hear my Kurzweil Creations at:

sites at:

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