Caution if mulching with wood chips (in 7a/b, at least)

miinva 9/5/2010, 10:40 pm

I was talking to someone the other day and she told me that she put in an elaborate garden with soaker hose and beautiful wood chips for mulch, only to discover that black widows love that environment! It got so infested that she burned it to the ground Sad

Just a cautionary tale I thought worthy of sharing.

LaFee 9/6/2010, 7:44 am

brrrrrrr..... bounce

**herbarium** 9/6/2010, 7:56 am

I am in zone 6 and we have black widows here. I have never seen more than one at a time and never in the mulch. Actually one at each of the three houses I have lived in.

Megan 9/6/2010, 10:51 am

Great. I will have to look out for them. I have almost exactly that... bark mulch and a misting / dripper system. So far all I've seen is a lot of roly polys if I go digging.

Retired Member 1 9/6/2010, 1:44 pm

I've never seen them in wood chip mulch--it may get too hot for them here-- but they love the corners of my dark storage shed, along with the brown recluse spiders. (shudders as she writes)

Chopper 9/6/2010, 2:06 pm

W We have so many black widows they are second only to ants. Luckily they do have pretty specific likes and dislikes so I just avoid putting my bare hands in their "like" places. I would have to burn the entire yards and edges of the house to be rid of them. I can live with them being outside. It is only whent hey get inside that I draw the line and so far it is not a problem. But...yuk.

Megan 9/6/2010, 2:08 pm

They were around when I lived in Southern CA... and when I was in the Pacific NW I had a couple of close brushes (literally) with brown recluses *shudder*. I can do without either!

miinva 9/6/2010, 2:23 pm

We have a lot of them on our farm. Under the watering troughs, in the shed, under anything made of wood... so I won't be risking it! I love rural living, but it has its minuses Smile

Edit: Megan, she wasn't using misters, she was using soaker hoses beneath the wood chips.

Megan 9/6/2010, 2:25 pm

Ugh. Maybe I'll go back to wearing long sleeve shirts, pants with socks over the top, and gloves again....

milaneyjane 9/6/2010, 4:44 pm

Ok, one of the few good reasons to live in MN, hahahaha!

**camprn** 9/6/2010, 4:46 pm

milaneyjane wrote:Ok, one of the few good reasons to live in MN, hahahaha!

Oh Dear, well I suppose you don't want to hear that a variety of BW spider does live in MN. What a Face

Old Hippie 9/7/2010, 12:21 am

Love my Zone 3b garden more and more every day. I mulch with wood chips but we have NO black widow spiders here!! Yaaaayyyyy!!!

GK

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