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Spiders

If you don’t want to see pictures, don’t go any farther. I’m posting a photo of some cayenne peppers I harvested recently so the spiders don’t show up.

We’ve had a garden spider in one of the Witch Hazel bushes for at least three months. I’ve named him Donovan but I really don’t know if he’s a boy or a girl. I remember that he was here the first part of July because I saw him, then there some very noisy nights with Independence Day fireworks. I passed by the spider on about July 10 and said to him . . Glad to see the fireworks didn’t scare you off.

Today I noticed an egg sac on the same tree but not right by where Donovan hangs out. At first, I thought it would be nice for him to have a family but then I thought . . there could be thousands of spiders in there, and next year (or next week) those 1,000 spiders could each have 1,000 babies. I don’t know that the common garden spider comes into our houses (like a black widow or brown recluse) but I really do not want a zillion spiders in my garden. I thought about cutting it into a jar, putting a lid on it and taking them out in the woods but my luck, I’d get bit by a snake trying to release spiders in the woods.

I’m going to think about it tonight and decide in the morning what to do with them.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wow, that’s a common garden spider? It’s beautiful! I agree, I wouldn’t want thousands in my yard, but one or two would be nice! ?

  2. Wow, that’s a common garden spider? It’s beautiful! I agree, I wouldn’t want thousands in my yard, but one or two would be nice! ?

  3. I just showed Lee your post and he said you should let Vince take care of it. He’ll get rid of them!!! ???

    • It takes a lot to get Vince in the garden so I’m on my own there. I did get him to come outside and look at it.

  4. You do want garden spiders in your garden. They get rid of a lot of bugs! And even though I let mine live, in my experience the babies move on to other places ( or get eaten by something), because I have never seen more than one or two in my yard.

  5. Baby spiders don’t all stay. And garden spiders don’t come into the house. That said, I squish all egg sacks. Yuck. But I have thousands of garden spiders.

  6. I’ve never bothered the egg sacs. I have 2-4 adults in various places around the yard
    They never try to come in the house and I’m sure baby spiders get eaten by something or I’d be overrun!
    I’d say ignore it. You have other things to do. Or you might ask your native garden guru his opinion.

    • We’re leaving it. With winter coming,I’m not even sure what will happen to them.

  7. Donovan needs to be renamed Donna. Male garden spiders are smaller and not as colorful. And though there might be about thousand hatched, most will end up as food for other critters that eat insects. Very few reach adult stage to reproduce. You won’t be overrun with spiders when they hatch.

    • Yes, I just changed the name to Donna. I don’t think she will mind the name change.

  8. I only ever see one of these spiders in my entire yard at a time. I don’t see the babies if and when they hatch. Please don’t destroy the egg sac. If nothing else they will provide food for other critters.

    • We decided to leave it alone but now I’m a bit concerned. It’s going to freeze tonight and it was looking very shriveled about dusk. I hope they’ll be ok.

  9. Beautiful orb weaver! That’s a girl – the males are *much* smaller and hang out somewhere on the web of the female they will be making the babies with. We’ve got two around our yard and my kids have named them Royal and Carla, last I checked. Royal has disappeared unfortunately, but her web (while falling apart a little bit) is FULL of mosquitoes that popped up a few days after Helene came through. I love seeing the spiders as long as I don’t have to dodge the webs in the woods. They’re all over down here in the Southeast – I’ve seen them in Alabama and Georgia both.

    • The first time I remember seeing one was in Texas. I haven’t seen a male . . at least that I noticed. I guess Donovan just became Donna. Thank you.

  10. This is a female orb weaver garden spider. Her male is very teeny but she has an egg sac so she’s already eaten him. These spiders do not want to come inside, are very beneficial, and IF they bite it is medically insignificant. Cool little gal. I’d welcome the little baby spoods.

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