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Author Topic: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?  (Read 3448 times)

Bob_B

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Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« on: August 30, 2015, 04:42:56 pm »

I wonder if this is a local phenomenon or more widespread? Specifically, in addition to much fewer butterflies, I haven't seen any Hentz orbweaver spiders (Neoscona crucifera) this year. In years past, I would always have 3 or 4 separate, large webs on my front porch, with good size spiders waiting for prey throughout the summer. This summer and last, I haven't seen one. Anyone else on the east coast (US) or mid-Atlantic notice a similar decline in these orb weavers?

   Bob
« Last Edit: August 30, 2015, 04:48:30 pm by Bob_B »
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Johnny_Johnson

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2015, 06:45:03 pm »

They don't start showing up here in Georgia until the late summer or early fall. I expect to start seeing them building webs on the eves of the house in three or four weeks. They'll be around for 5 or 6 weeks before disappearing for another year. During those few weeks I'll be carefully looking around when I open a door to step outside.

Later,
Johnny
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Johnny_Johnson

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2015, 06:52:41 pm »

Or, I could be thinking of Araneus cavaticus. I'm not sure that I'd know the difference without a close examination (which I'm not inclined to do).

Later,
Johnny
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Bob_B

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2015, 07:31:39 pm »

Or, I could be thinking of Araneus cavaticus. I'm not sure that I'd know the difference without a close examination (which I'm not inclined to do).

Later,
Johnny

Nope; I'm reasonably confident I'm talking about Neoscona crucifera. They build their webs after sunset. In Maryland, late July thru October are their peak. Frankly, I miss those scary buggers (arachnids).  ;)
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Bob_B

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2015, 07:32:55 pm »

They don't start showing up here in Georgia until the late summer or early fall. I expect to start seeing them building webs on the eves of the house in three or four weeks. They'll be around for 5 or 6 weeks before disappearing for another year. During those few weeks I'll be carefully looking around when I open a door to step outside.

Later,
Johnny

I'd appreciate hearing back when you see them. I've been checking around my house since early August and will continue to do so until the first strong frost.
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mezzoduomo

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2015, 07:42:12 pm »

This year, I have fewer Black Widows...and a dramatic increase in the Sonoran Desert Toad. Coincidence?
They are huge this year, too: 5-7 inches long. They look like a big, slime-covered rock.
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Johnny_Johnson

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2015, 01:49:05 pm »

Hi Bob, they're back in north Georgia! I saw the first one around ten days ago and now have five or six at various locations on the eves of the house. Seems like a new one shows up every couple of days.

Later,
Johnny
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Bob_B

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2015, 03:16:22 pm »

Thanks Johnny. I also have seen one (and only one) building a web from my second floor gable. Hopefully more will appear. (On the other hand, there are a lot of funnel web spiders this year.)
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Rob C

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2015, 10:36:33 am »

This thread should have come with a health warning.

My apartment's a ground floor one, euphemistically known as a garden apartment. We also appear to cultivate wolf spiders in the field beyond the hedge. These mothers are like a walking almond. Before the community installed a watering system, I used to find these things clinging to the beading that holds in the glass in the wooden french windows. You can hardly distinguish them from the wood, except that I varnish the wood. I may have accidently varnished spiders too at some period.

However, I think they may now be starting to relish the artificial midnight showers and find exercise in dodging the spray by climbing up to my pad again.

At first, I used to feel such revulsion that I had to kill them, my heart in my mouth. Now, many years later, I can face them more bravely and try to coax them onto the bottom of one of those brooms made from stiff grass of some kind. The trick is to be gentle but firm: damage them not, but flick then carefully over the hedge and back to their proper environment. That gentle flick is actually so powerful a flick that I can never tell if the actual creature has followed through with the motion and flown the natural trajectory, or is simply stuck inside the grasses, ready to catch me out the next time I pick up the broom.

Ah, Nature; I love you!

Rob C

petermfiore

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Re: Anyone else notice fewer orb weaver spiders this summer?
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2015, 10:48:45 am »



We also appear to cultivate wolf spiders in the field beyond the hedge. These mothers are like a walking almond.

Ah, Nature; I love you!

Rob C

I'm with you on the Wolf spiders, we have tons of them in NE Pennsylvania. A BIG NOT GOOD. With forests I'm on the other side of the coin...LOL

Peter
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