cobwebs on my trees and Lugustrom bushes

by Karen
(Ponte Vedra Bch, Fl)

Wish I had taken a photo, but was so freaked out by what I saw I couldn't wait to get away! All over two trees by our lagoon was a web that completely surrounded the limbs. Inside the web was spiders of all sizes! It was like a make believe Halloween scene.

Adjacent to this area we have a row of lugustrom bushes. The webs and spiders were in there as well. The effect was not as dramatic.

Surprisingly my climbing roses that these lugustrom's touch, were unaffected. I use an all in one rose care system. When we received all the rains the whole area was cleaned out. I called an arborist who told me just to keep an eye out. He didn't think the insects would damage the trees or bushes. It didn't I am happy to report. The arborist had never heard of this before. When I gave him the positive result, he was sorry that he didn't come by to see the trees himself. This happened in September. We live in North Florida.

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cobwebs on my trees and Lugustrom bushes

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Did I miss something?
by: April W.

Doug, I don't see where Karen mentioned any spraying of these spiders.

WEB WORMS VERSUS SPIDERS
by: Ferne, Kamloops, B.C.

Hi April

If you are phobic, you may not like the idea of clouds of spiders...BUT it is pretty hard for us to confuse spiders and worms unless we are badly in need of glasses (just got my new ones!) or are so completely panicked by webbing that we don't get close enough to see the major differences. There IS a big difference, after all, in the shape and movement of spiders and worms. I have also seen the odd clump of web worms in my trees. Spiders DO hatch by the thousands at certain times in my own yard so I usually leave the webworms to be taken care of by the predator bugs and the birds...they need something to live on.

I have photographs of webs full of literally hundreds of spiders--a fascinating thing to watch close-up--well for some of us, at least!. From a good distance it might be possible to mistake the baby spider webbing for a web worm nest for a few days. Spiders DO NOT eat the trees and would find the web worms a lovely juicy snack, I suspect. I note that the lady herself says "there was no damage to the trees or bushes".

If you are having major problems with web worms you might want to try encouraging spiders, wasps, birds, and other predator bugs to take up residence....They will definitely limit--but not eliminate entirely-- the number of web worm nests you have in the long run. If you make a habit of spraying I would pretty much guarantee that with no predator bugs left (having killed or sickened most with the poison) that the web worms would be back in hordes the next time around. And so you would have to spray again....again...and again. A thing that is not good for you, loved ones, the birds, or nature in general...no matter what the chemical companies would have us believe. The spray is a real thing to be frightened of, unlike the spiders.

The secret to an easy healthy garden (not to speak of family) is maintaining a natural balance...a few of these and a few of those helps to maintain the health and balance of your garden and saves a lot of wasted money on sprays. Once you go the spraying route you will have to do it forever.

I will send a couple of pictures of my baby spiders along separately. Hopefully, Doug can put a picture or two with this. I am hoping to get some better close-up ones this coming year with a more advanced camera.

P.S. Good thing you mentioned your finance. My sister's name is April too.,,it is a small world in more than one way! Best regards , Ferne

Could it have been?
by: April

Spiders? Now that is creepy. I've never heard of spiders inhabiting an area like that. I have however, seen and heard of Web Worms which will infest entire trees. They create giant webs in the trees as a sort of feeding pod for the larvae. Which won't destroy your tree but will feed on the tender part of the leaves, leaving the veins and midrib. I wonder if this is what you had. Sounds very much the same and I had the same reaction the first time I was them in my trees. I'm a bit aracnaphobic so you can imagine me running across the lawn towards the house screaming for my Fiance.

Cobwebs
by: Jennifer

It happened here in Austin, Texas too. On the hike and bike trail around Town Lake. It made the papers...the trees and shrubs were covered, and the webs had caught so many misquitoes, that the webs sounded like they were humming! Talk about freaky!

Ferne - you're a jewel
by: Doug

I have to echo Ferne's comments - spiders are one of the good guys in the garden. They eat tons of insects that create problems for our gardens and are to be protected. In your case, they got a little enthusiastic about the breeding but everybody is entitled to a wild night on the town every now and then. :-)

The message here is do not spray unless you know what the outcome is. In this case, you've learned that spraying only kills off good guys and allows the other insects they were set to eat to get away to bother your garden and possibly yourself.

That's a good lesson to learn and to share. :-)

SPIDERS ARE THE GOOD GUYS!
by: Ferne, Kamloops, B.C., Canada

I could be wrong about this, Karen, having spent little time in Florida or other southerly places, BUT my guess is that your spiders were hatching bunches of babies OR that there was an outbreak of smaller juicy insects around those particular trees which were a favourite treat for some hungry spiders.

Spiders are like the large hawks of the bird world. They are very efficient predators and probably the most efficient pest control we have. They eat a wide assortment of other bugs, but NOT plants.

In my part of Canada and in my yard we have Golden Orb Spiders. These appear to be cyclic. Some years they are everywhere; others they are hard to find. In spring I have seen them hatching by the hundreds all at once and soon there are webs trailing from all parts of the garden holding small individual spiders. They are fascinating creatures once we get past the cultural bug hang up most of us inherit. (I used to be quite spider phobic.)

Because of spiders and birds, most years I have no aphids or other pest problems. This spring there was a small outbreak of aphids and I had to work hard to find a spider anywhere. By fall there were medium size Golden Orbs clinging to messy webs in many places. I am hoping for a good hatch in April or May so I can take some more and better pictures of these colourful and interesting creatures. They aren't the only spiders we have but are one of the easiest to watch as they don't move about a whole lot. The mature Golden Orb Spiders in my yard just spin homes inside the shelter of the thick branches of bushes such as Juniper, Oregon Grape, and Clematis and wait for other insects to happen by.

P.S.
I use no pesticides or herbicides. These poisons can affect spiders, bees, butterflies, birds, bats, people and pets. Using pesticide poisons becomes a non-stop repetitive cycle. Some of the bugs eventually develope a resistance to SOME poisons but in the meantime you have removed the natural controls that nature provides, leaving you at the mercy of whatever voracious plant eating pest happens to show up next.

So we can leave nature to do what it does well in a mixed garden or we can spray, spray and spray some more for as long as we have a garden. For me it's an easy decision.

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Doug Green