spiders

This year has been a good one for our eight legged friends here in north florida. For the most part I love spiders in my garden but as I have been moving things around I've come accross quite a few brown widows (yes there are such things) and their spikey little egg cases. I just clear the webs with a bamboo plant stake and crush the egg cases with my foot. I have found one black widow too. I found her at night while hunting horn worms and sprayed her with the soap,hot chilli, and garlic oil I use for the bug control it did the job.

The first thing I do each morning before I garden is clear all the webs as I hate walking into them. Why are they right where I want to put my face? Again I use my trusty bamboo plant stake. My DN Joyce (how hates all spiders) says "If I didn't know what you were doing I'd think you where blessing your garden."

Tell me your spider tales.

Years ago, during one of my row gardening attempts, I reached my hand out through a tomato's branches to reach for a nice, ripe tomato and almost grabbed a black widow spider! Yikes!!! I don't like spiders and snakes!

I have tried to convince myself that most spiders are harmless and actually good to have in the garden, but I'm just really afraid of them!

I don't like walking into the webs either but I just leave them...I figure if they are eating the bugs that might be eating my plants they are welcome to stay! LOL

Most spiders I think of as my friends but not that kind that can land me in the hospital. I don't think it makes much of a differance to them if it is me or my stake that brakes their webs, but it does to me;)

They are indeed benifical insects but like mantis they eat any bugs they can catch including other benificals. Still I don't kill mantis or most spiders. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. This year they are realy thick I think due to the amount of food there is around for them. Widow spiders all three kinds black, brown, and red like it moist. They like my garden for that reason to be sure.

Holy cow!! We have those brown widow spiders and spiky egg cases everywhere around our house. I had no idea what they were. Just figured they were some innocuous yard spiders. Oh bleh! Bleh bleh bleh!! Now I need to go out and clear away all traces of them. Like right now. Or at least after 1300 when I can safely work outside again.

We found a black widow under the seat of an outdoor chair in the spring. That one had to go with a quickness. I generally have no problem with spiders, especially since they help out with insect control. But we have kids, and I can't have harmful spiders hanging about. Ack!

I can tell you a spider tale from a different locale.

I used to do a LOT of fishing on a commercialized lake in NE Oklahoma (Grand Lake, for you Okies). For more than half a dozen years, I was down there almost every weekend from St. Patrick's Day to Halloween, and sometimes beyond. And, I used to get so sick of my father taking his houseboat over to his friend's house and parking it for the day. I got so ridiculously bored because there just wasn't anything to do for a young boy, all alone, but fish. Oh, sure, I'd skip my rocks, swim places most wouldn't dare go, and whatnot. But, 90% of my time was fishing.

August really sucked. August is when all the spiders seemed to magically appear. Saturday mornings were spent clearing webs off and around the boat. Sundays were, too....lol.

But, mostly, August was the time when every spider would try and find ANY place to spin up a web. And, the most common place......right between dock poles. Right in the walkways.

So, as I would do a lot of fishing from dusk until 11-ish, I would find every danged web spun that night. And, most of the leftovers from places people had not been in a week or more.

But, I learned one great technique for anyone fishing the docks like I used to. Heck, if you have that lifestyle, tell your kids/grandkids. Walk with the pole out in front of you. And, constantly wave that pole up and down when you cross the dock poles. Most of the webs will end up on your pole, and you only feel a straggling webline or two...and that's annoying enough. However, don't dip your pole in the water to rinse it off. Something about water turns those webs into concrete and you will have a much harder time getting the webs off your pole. Instead, you have to bite the bullet and take them off with your hands. Just hope you don't get a spider when you do....

I can see you now, blessing the docks with your fishing pole.

Orb Weaver spiders can be a true blessing a garden. They are great, efficient predators of numerous garden pests. I welcome them in my garden.

However, not all spiders are good for the gardener. Being the practical Yankee that I am, I truly believe that being forewarned is being forearmed. Knowledge is a great thing and using it wisely helps all the creatures in my garden.


An incomplete but oh so handy spider chart. <~~~click

camprn wrote:Orb Weaver spiders can be a true blessing a garden. They are great, efficient predators of numerous garden pests. I welcome them in my garden.

However, not all spiders are good for the gardener. Being the practical Yankee that I am, I truly believe that being forewarned is being forearmed. Knowledge is a great thing and using it wisely helps all the creatures in my garden.

An incomplete but oh so handy spider chart. <~~~click

Good link to list of dangerous spiders.

In my yard, I can count on finding Black Widow spiders. Not every day or month, but I end up killing one or two a year.

If only there was a spider that hunted and eats those d%$& nasty large grasshoppers!

Jeff

neet link Camprn

Nice link I have banana spiders everwhere out side also called golden orb weavers. I detest walking through their webs. I can be seen each morning waving my anti-web wand (tomato stake) around the garden before the chores comance. I think my neibors must think I'm crazy since they can't see the webs.

Well, in my shed, I found a Black Widow. Nice size too. Body size between a nickle and a quarter. I hated to kill such a beautiful spider, but with my 4 yr old. they are just too dangerous!

See pictures.

shannon1 wrote:Nice link I have banana spiders everwhere out side also called golden orb weavers. I detest walking through their webs. I can be seen each morning waving my anti-web wand (tomato stake) around the garden before the chores comance. I think my neibors must think I'm crazy since they can't see the webs.

Been there! We lived in Florida for 16 years. One time my husband was walking through woods, walked into one of those webs and spider was on his hat...BLAH!