Spiders spread webs all over town

link Staff photo: Brittney Cannon

Thanks to a wet summer, insect activity has increased this fall and brought with it a plethora of spiders. Webs could be found adorning Main Street in Clovis this week and are thought to be from baby spiders traveling via wind to find their new homes.

If you’ve noticed thick, white, wispy webs adorning the city this week, you might be a little creeped out to know they aren’t part of anyone’s Halloween décor.

Nope, those are spider webs, according to Curry County Extension Agent Luther Dunlap, and they’re arriving just in time for the spooky holiday.

Dunlap said he doesn’t know what spider specifically the webs belong to, but it’s common to see the sticky strings adorning anything they contact — light poles, cars, pets, yourself — during autumn.

Maybe more common this year with all of our recent rains.

“It happens every year,” Dunlap said. “It’s kind of a way of spiders dispersing. They catch the wind with their webbing and they float away.”

Lee Ann Davis, a service technician and supervisor for a local pest control company, noticed several webs the other night as she was walking her dog.

“The other night as the sun was going down, I could see hundreds of those little webs flowing in the breeze — literally hundreds of them off of the plants, all over everything,” she described. “It’s part of nature.”

If you’ve ever seen the children’s movie “Charlotte’s Web,” Dunlap said the film depicts exactly what happens — baby spiders hatch, release their webbing and catch the wind to find a new home.

Davis elaborated, saying that baby spiders (or “spiderlings”) can secrete their webs several times not only to catch prey, but to continue looking for a spot they’re happy to call home.

“It’s an unnerving feeling (to be caught in a web),” Davis said, laughing. “I was seeing all those little pieces of web; if all of those (spiderlings) live, we’ll be taken over by spiders, but they have predators as well.”

No, the webs do not belong to tarantulas; according to Davis, they likely belong to orb spiders. But, Dunlap did say the time is ripe for the big furry tarantulas to embark on their autumn trek.

Dunlap said the migration can begin as early as August, and in other areas in the Four Corners region, the journey begins in October.

If you’re weary of spiders getting into your home, Dunlap suggested calling a pest control company or purchase over-the-counter remedies.

“(Spiders and insects) need food, water and shelter, so that makes a triangle,” Dunlap said. “If you break that triangle, you break the cycle.”

Keeping your home clean and wiped down to get rid of food crumbs also helps keep pests away, Dunlap said.

Davis said spiders have many routes to enter your home — anything from hopping on wood before you bring it in for the stove to plants on the porch to even your winter clothes that have been in storage for months — but there are several ways to keep your home spider-free.

Davis recommended throwing winter clothes in the dryer for around 10 minutes to fluff them up and incinerate unwelcome creatures simultaneously, plus it’s a good way to unwrinkle clothes before hanging them up, she added.

Another way to keep your home free of spiders is to spray your plants with a little soapy water before bringing them into the house.

“It will kill insects on the plants,” Davis said. “There may still be some insects in the soil, but some people put gravel on top of the soil and that keeps the fungus gnats from breeding, and they look pretty, too.”

And when all else fails, just hang up some gum traps around the home, Davis said, and keep knocking down any webs you find in your home or around the door.

But don’t go crazy with it, she said — spiders do serve a purpose.

“If spiders are outside, don’t bother them unless they’re right outside your door because they do help control bugs,” Davis said. “We need to leave nature alone as much as possible. I know that sounds strange for someone in my line of work, but I take it seriously. I don’t want to sleep with bugs or spiders, but the rest of the place — pastures, yards, parks and whatever — let nature take its course unless it gets out of control.”