Spiders & Webs

I have a friend who is SO terrified of spiders that she has been known to launch out a car window to escape one on the far side of the car. I usually ended up being the one to move the spider to a location less threatening. 

Spiders that are indoors I usually evaluate to determine whether they should be ignored, encouraged, removed to the Great Outdoors, or killed. A small spider that has built a small web in an out-of-the-way corner is usually ignored (tho' the web is dusted away when company is due). If it's web is in a location where it's actually catching tiny gnats, I give it encouragement. You go, Spider! If it's crawling around my bedroom, it's usually escorted outside. While we do have Black Widow spiders in this area, they are usually enjoying themselves outside, not in.

As for the outdoor spiders, I encourage the heck out of them. (Except for the Black Widows, for fairly obvious reasons.) That is, unless they are foolish enough to build a web across a pathway where I have to walk. In that case, I whack away at the whole web to encourage them to move it to a place less apropos to my travel and more apropos to flying insect travel.

This large web, built by a rather large, black orb weaver of some sort, stretches between a tree and the front corner of the garage.

This web is built right over the walkway from the driveway into the fenced area of the front yard toward the front door. However, it's built sufficiently high that a human would have to be close to 7' tall to encounter the web. So it stays where it is and provides us with a point of fascination.

You may have noticed that there's a huge vacant wedge at the bottom of the web. Well, this pathway is also a favored route of a variety of birds and they tend to fly right through it! Each day I can go out and see a different chunk of web missing and mister orb weaver working diligently to rebuild that section.

I have orb weavers out back, too, but this one is tiny compared the the black one out front. 

This little guy has built his web among the strands of a macrame plant hangar. On sunny mornings (like the one pictured) his webwork shines and sparkles in the morning sun. Otherwise, it's nearly invisible and helps keep the flying insect population down.

So, you see, each of these spiders is part of the web of my Integrated Pest Management plan! I don't use toxics in my garden, so I need to have ways to keep from being inundated by bugs. Letting the spiders be is one way. Encouraging beneficial insects by planting a variety of plants that can host a variety of such insects is another. Converting my plantings from imported species to species native to my area also helps to boost the population of beneficial insects. 

Providing water and cover for birds is yet another way to help keep the bugs down. The Black Phoebes mentioned in an earlier post scarf medium to large insects right out of the air. Hummingbirds actually pluck tiny gnats and flies from the air! Chickadees and Bushtits glean sucking insects from the stems of plants. Woodpeckers drill into the trees to get the boring insects there.  In fact, most birds eat a variety of insects, especially during the nesting season.

And the spiders, in addition to catching and eating bugs, also provide the strong, sticky building materials that many birds use to build their nests! Hummingbirds in particular glean bits of spider silk to wrap their nests into tight, strong bowls and use the sticky bits to add camouflage.

And here's where the cycle comes back 'round. If I sprayed all those possible insects back to the stone age, the birds wouldn't come to visit. And, chances are, the bugs that the birds don't eat (I'm thinking about golden aphids here) would be back and have to be sprayed again and again and again anyway. 

So, I have some bugs. And I have a teeny bit of insect damage, though it's hardly noticeable. But I also have lots of birds. And I have some pretty, sparkly spider webs. And I have an enormous variety of shades, tints, and hues of green and every shape and texture of foliage. And I have a wondrous mix of colors, shapes, and scents of flowers.

It's all part of the Great Web.