![]() ![]() Considerate, because I appreciate how they put a signal up – that zigzag weave down the middle – so that birds won’t fly into their webs. This is the "considerate" Black and Yellow Garden spider. It has a leg span of about 2 1/2 inches with a white area near the head. However, take this yellow and black colored garden spider. These spiders are also very poisonous, aggressive and hide in soft places like the arms and legs of clothing, bedding or pillows. If the spider you find is brown and smooth with a violin-shaped pattern on its back - then the spider is most likely a Brown Recluse. These spiders have extremely poisonous venom, and make their homes close to the ground near rock piles, decaying wood or small cracks and crevices in walls and the like. So, look at the coloration of the spider - if it is black with a red hourglass-shaped pattern on its underbelly, then it is almost certainly a Black Widow. I try to keep an eye out for Black Widows and Brown Recluses. I like to remember how to identify two spiders in particular. Many are harmless but some of them are poisonous. There are many different types of spiders. Now of course, if you’re arachnophobic – doing the exact opposite of all of the above will encourage the spiders to shuffle off to the neighbors’ yard. When I leave a terra cotta pot lying on its side in the garden, inevitably a garden spider will build a web and catch his/her dinner there. I have found that the underside of broad leafed perennials like hostas make good homes for smaller spiders too. Also popular are fences, trellises, and any shrubs that are planted closely together. So how do you create a garden that is hospitable to spiders? Tall plants like purple coneflowers make good places for spiders to build a web. I cannot help but cheer watching a spider catch a wasp or an earwig. These little creatures can spend all day rebuilding a web after it has been damaged in the hopes of catching yet another meal. Observing a garden spider is both thrilling and meditative. I don’t know about you, but I’ll pick the spiders over the skeeters. Those webs that you may not like walking into are in fact, great open nets for catching flies and mosquitoes. Garden Spiders – A Biocontroller’s Secret Weapon I really don’t recommend it because there are many spiders that are helpful around the garden, especially when it comes to combatting insect pests. Is the drought in your area getting to you this summer? Old folk lore says that if you step on a spider, then it will rain.
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