Home › Forums › Open Discussion › More Spiders than “usual” this year?
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September 17, 2008 at 8:48 pm #588086
Robert2715ParticipantIt might just be me, but it seems like there are more spiders than normal this September? Anyone have a similar sense and/or an explanation?
September 17, 2008 at 8:52 pm #639630
flowerpetalMemberI was thinking the same thing too. When I walk the little dog in the morning (and that’s pretty early) I am always walking into spider webs that have been stretched across the sidewalk paths from trees to shrubs. I don’t remember that from other years.
September 17, 2008 at 8:56 pm #639631
WSratsinacageMemberSpiders are a pain in the A55.
September 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm #639632
JoBParticipantYES! they are everywhere.. even in the house.
September 17, 2008 at 9:03 pm #639633
flowerpetalMemberThe Burke Museum says its a myth that there are more spiders in late summer and early fall. However, spiders that we typically find in our houses are at maturity at this time of year and perhaps that explains why we are seeing so many indoors.
I picked up and put on a shirt one morning this past weekend that I had flung on top of the cedar chest at the end of the bed. Inside the shirt was a black spider which creeped me out. I was not charitable… and the spider did not live many more seconds than my discovery.
September 17, 2008 at 9:13 pm #639634
changingtimesMemberew ew ew ew!!! spiders are my most hated bug!!! i know mom about all the greatness they do for the enviornment but ahhhhh! i can not stand them!!! and how do they build there webs so dang fast!!! i swear the one on my porch is out to get me! he builds a web…i knock it down with a broom… go put the broom away…and the little bugger has it re-built by the time i get back :)
September 17, 2008 at 9:18 pm #639635
SueParticipantFor the past 2 months the spiders have been driving me crazy. I have webs outside *everywhere* and I swear every morning as I leave for the bus I’m brushing web off my face somewhere. And there are a ton of spiders getting in the house too. My indoor cat is having a ball chasing them, but I’m not happy.
September 17, 2008 at 10:19 pm #639636
r26MemberAnyone know what types there are here? We’ve killed a couple HUGE ones (like quarter sized). Off to vomit.
September 17, 2008 at 10:21 pm #639637
JenVMemberI live in a basement apartment, so imagine how many I have….I used to live in harmony with the spiders and let my cat kill them if she felt like it- until I woke up with a big hairy spider on me and some overnight bites. Now I kill all the big ones. I let the Daddy Longlegs live, though – they’re harmless and not really all that creepy.
what we typically have here, if I am not mistaken, is the common brown house spider.
September 17, 2008 at 10:26 pm #639638
rs261Membergigantic european house spider Tegenaria duellica
Supposedly they kill the hobo spider…so they are good. I believe they are also in the guiness book of world records for the fastest spider.
I dont like them one bit
September 17, 2008 at 10:30 pm #639639
guidosmomMemberKnock on wood I haven’t had any in the house that I know of yet, but I have seen some awful looking huge ones at the barn this month. I always heard the spiders here were harmless, but don’t we have the black widow here?
September 17, 2008 at 10:34 pm #639640
WSBKeymasterOK, a quick note from your host here. On a personal note, just wanted to urge you not to be too quick to kill spiders. As at least one post’er above noted, there are GOOD spiders. They eat lots of bugs that otherwise would overrun your house and mine. Yeah, there are a few that nip, but for example the dreaded black widow is NOT native in this area (Eastern Wash, different story). So our motto is live and let live. We’ve got an old house and there’s practically a spider in every corner, just another member of the family … TR
September 17, 2008 at 10:43 pm #639641
flowerpetalMemberStart here to identify local spiders but with this caveat: there’s an ugly picture of a spider bite on a finger which I will probably dream about tonight!
September 17, 2008 at 10:43 pm #639642
herongrrrlParticipantWith you there, TR. We have an “agreement” with the spiders in our house–if they’re on the ceiling, they get to stay where they are. On the ground, if the cats don’t get them first, they get relocated outside. I find the cup-and-index card method of spider removal very effective since I personally canNOT have spiders touching me!
In our house, we refer to those really big spooky spiders as the Pacific Northwest Bathtub-in-the-Morning Holy $$^$#%#$%#@ Spider.
September 17, 2008 at 10:58 pm #639643
WesMemberI usually have some of the black/brown hairy ones in my basement or sometime upstairs. They run and jump and I no likey. I have found a black widow in my garage..once. I have ony seen a brown recluse or hobo spider at the Starbucks on Strander in Tukwila, it was under the pastry case.
My dad, when I was younger, would kill them but not really smoosh them and then leave them in the toilet or bathtub or sink. So first thing in the morning, when you are all groggy, you would lift the toilet seat cover and freak out. Ahhh, good times.
September 18, 2008 at 12:16 am #639644
squareeyesParticipantSpiders are not allowed to live if they invade the house, simple as that. Generally I let the outdoor ones live, unless they decide to stretch webs anywhere between my front door and my car. That’s a forfeit.
My two cats are excellent for alerting me to a spider, but useless when it comes to killing them.
I particularly noticed last fall that there were far fewer spiders than normal invading my house; this year they’re back full force and I’m killing 2-4 a week the last several weeks.
September 18, 2008 at 2:16 am #639645
WSMomParticipantNearly 17 years ago, when my daughter was just learning to talk, I brushed against some bushes getting into my car. She was behind me in her car seat as we pulled out of the driveway she kept repeating, “mama, butterfly, mama, butterfly”. I still remember how she enunciated each and every syllable in her sweet baby voice. Just as I was complementing her on her good words, I felt something in my hair…you guessed it…A HUGE SPIDER!!!! It took all my self control to slowly pull over, stop the car and shake the creature off of my head without totally freaking out and freaking her out as well. I still get the shivers thinking about it. Butterfly indeed.
September 18, 2008 at 2:58 am #639646
datamuseParticipantA spider spun a lovely web inside my car window earlier this week. I actually thought it was really cool and thought about leaving it there, but decided he wouldn’t catch much in my car so relocated him.
Every time I go running in Westcrest I run into a ton of spiderwebs. Really annoying.
Btw, daddy longlegs are actually some of the most poisonous spiders out there, but their teeth can’t penetrate skin so people and pets are safe. They’re good to have around because they eat other spiders.
September 18, 2008 at 3:00 am #639647
HunterGParticipantThere have been quite a few around my place feeding upon my poor little Winnie (cat).
She adores them, stares at them longingly, bats them around and then lays on them so she can play with them later. Or until I find them and vacuum them up.
September 18, 2008 at 3:01 am #639648
dapuffinParticipantI was bitten by a brown recluse in the 1980s. (It was in another State.) Not a pleasant experience at all. Well the aftermath was not pleasant; I never saw the sucker that got me. I’m pretty phobic and the spider hatch season is one of the very very few things about living here that I don’t like. ESPECIALLY the above-mentioned “Pacific Northwest Bathtub-in-the-Morning Holy $$^$#%#$%#@ Spider.” Thanks for the giggle Herongrrrl.
September 18, 2008 at 3:03 am #639649
changingtimesMemberi remember reading about black widows getting transfered to the pacific northwest via bannanas and other fruit boxs. EWWWWWWWWW! (shiver shiver)it scared me enough to always check the boxes at costco and shake all my fruit before eating….by the way i bought corn at safeway the other day and there was a whole dead caterpiller family in one of the stalks i was shucking….fuzzy bugs also terrify me!
September 18, 2008 at 7:25 am #639650
inactiveMemberI’m weighing in as totally pro-spider, except for the poisonous ones that will hurt somebody or when I walk through a web and get it on my arms or face; that IS kind of gross.
But, watch them weave a web sometime – I think it is so fascinating that all of that complex architecture is hardwired in that teeny tiny creature. Cool, to me. And, some spiders have very intricately patterned markings on them as well, not to mention their importance to our ecosystem.
HunterG – I like your cat’s style. My kitty hasn’t discovered spiders yet, but she’s a dedicated mouser in the winter. Off-season, she has been working 24/7 on the fruitfly infestation in my house. What is with the FRUIT FLY’s this year????? No matter how much I clean produce, they manage to stowaway somewhere. How do they get in? Fruit flies are my insect gripe….they have no particularly importance within the ecosystem. Do they? Ugh.
September 18, 2008 at 7:36 am #639651
WSBKeymasterOverall (I should probably call an extension expert about this, might make a good storylet) there just seem to be more bugs etc. We still haven’t exorcised the ants. And we’ve seen the fruitflies. And bigger flies (got nontoxic – to humans – flypaper hangers for those). And moths. Or, maybe it’s just our little old house and the fact we deliberately have plants growing around and onto it like a jungle reclaiming its turf … TR
September 18, 2008 at 8:18 am #639652
credmondParticipantDo a Wiki search on spider and then follow the various links to the different kinds and their very cool differences. Spiders and the hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants) are – to me – the top insects in the food chain – predators. Read up on them and then watch them outside (or inside) and remember that they’re way more willing to get away from you than you are to get them off or outside. Not understanding their behavior is part of what has allowed them to become the monster insects they seem to be. I’ve got this huge, (large 4 gallon trash can size) wasp’s nest which I recently had vacated by a local who collects them for their venom (used by companies who create allergy tests). In talking with the wasp collector, I learned so much about them which was useful and fascinating – and I already was knowledgeable. They’re only bad guys if they scare you and not getting bit or stung is really easy once you understand a bit about their habits.
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They eat the other bugs – these are the good guy bugs! I know butterflies and damsel flies are beautiful, but spiders are useful and can be beautiful in their own way. It takes 30 minutes for an orb-weaver to completely redo a complicated, 12-inch diameter aerial-hung web. Wasps and bees regularly fly miles from their nest (remember their scale, that would be hundreds of miles to us) and get back on time each end-of-foraging/pollinating-day. They’re really more fascinating than frightening, ‘least to me. And, of course, ants till the soil.
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Full disclosure – I am in no way affected by stings or bites of these bugs (do avoid brown recluse and black widow) in other than a pain way – I don’t get a reaction. I’ve also only been stung a few times (except for the time I stepped on a ground hornet’s nest and that single incident resulted in two-weeks’ worth of cortisone shots) so I don’t have a very deep “bad” history with these creatures. Spiders are ugly, but they’re so fascinating to watch and hunt in some incredibly clever ways.
September 18, 2008 at 1:42 pm #639653
JoBParticipantI still have a scar from the brown recluse bite i got in my early 20s. .. and i do react to all spider bites..
the spiders are so commonplace right now that i don’t freak.. unless they decide to come down the wall when i am in my bath.
No spider sees me naked and lives.
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