Here Come the Spiders: Orb Weavers
Walk through a Virginia yard in late summer and chances are that you'll come across a large, circular web stretched across a porch rail, garden path, or deck stair. The spider sitting in the middle is often an orb weaver. These spiders are common across Virginia they can become a real nuisance.
What Do Orb Spiders Look Like?
Orb weavers come in several colors and sizes, so they are not always easy to identify at first glance. In Virginia, homeowners may see species with yellow, orange, brown, gray, white, or black markings. Some have smooth rounded bodies, while others look bumpy or spiny.
Most orb weavers share a few traits:
Large, rounded abdomen
Long legs that may look banded or striped
Colorful patterns on the back
Round, wheel-shaped web
Habit of sitting in the web, especially in the evening
One of the best-known types of orb-weaver is the yellow garden spider, which has a bold black and yellow body and often builds a web with a thick zigzag pattern through the center. Other orb weavers may be less dramatic but still easy to spot because of their classic circular webs.
Females are usually larger than males. In many cases, the spider people notice in the web is a female. Males are smaller and spend more time searching for mates instead of sitting in the web.
Orb weavers can look intimidating because of their size, but they are not aggressive. If disturbed, they usually drop from the web, hide, or move away. Bites are uncommon and generally happen only when a spider is trapped against skin.
Where Do Orb Weavers Live?
Virginia gives orb weavers plenty of places to thrive. The state has wooded areas, humid summers, gardens, shrubs, and many insect infested outdoor spaces. Orb weavers are spotted most often from late summer into fall, when they are larger and their webs are more noticeable.
Around a home, they commonly build webs in places such as:
Porch ceilings and railings
Decks and patios
Garden beds and shrubs
Window frames and shutters
Outdoor light fixtures
Fence lines
Eaves and roof edges
Sheds, garages, and carports
Between trees, bushes, and tall plants
They choose locations where flying insects are likely to pass through. Porch lights, for example, attract moths, flies, beetles, and mosquitoes. That makes the area around the light fixture a perfect hunting spot.
Unlike some other species, orb weavers often rebuild damaged webs. If a web is swept away one morning, a new one may appear by evening in the same general area. This is especially true if the location has steady insect activity.
How Do I Protect Against Orb Weavers?
Orb weavers, while not aggressive, are usually not a welcome sight to homeowners. They create messy, sticky webs that are gross to walk through, leave your home looking poorly maintained, and can be startling and scary to come across.
Because orb weavers intend to build their webs where food is plentiful, eliminating (or at least reducing) the insect population around your home will discourage these spiders from deciding to make your home their home. Keeping a professional pest control barrier around your home year-round will help keep spiders and other insects at bay, and making sure that your yard and property are sprayed at regular intervals will discourage flying insects from infesting and swarming lights, drawing spiders in.
Spiders are a Halloween decoration for a reason; they're creepy and they're prolific this time of year. We're here to help you keep unwanted spiders and webs off your property, so you can enjoy the season without unwanted extra living decor.
Call us today!
To learn about more Virginia pests, peruse our pest library and our other blog posts.
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