An orb weaver spider photographed in 2007
They’re baaack.
Orb weaver spider "season" is upon us in San Diego County, and this time, locals are seeing — and getting creeped out — by more of the spiders than usual.
According to the San Diego County Communications Office, it's not so much the arachnid's season but simply a matter of the little critters are all grown up and are making themselves — and their big webs — felt in a big way.
Chris Conlan, the supervising vector ecologist who has been with the County’s Vector Control Program for more than two decades, said that rain creates more vegetation across San Diego County and, in turn, more insects and spiders. This means orb weaver spiders have more tiny bugs to eat and they're well-fed and thriving.
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The Araneidae commonly build those iconic spiral, wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forests – those webs you get caught in walking to your car or front door. Conlan has called the panicky dance moves to get out of those sticky webs “the crazy spider dance.”
Orb weavers are a family of spiders, not a single species, that come in various sizes and colors, and are classified by their intricate web spinning, which they usually complete over the course of a couple of days. They are very, very successful — and have spread around the globe, of the most part. Thousands of the critters have been spotted in California and reported to iNaturist.
The web of an orb weaver spider can sometimes be so large it stretches from a house to a car, or between trees.
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While orb weaver spiders may look — or feel menacing, if you're particularly unlucky — they’re generally not. They can bite but will usually only do so if threatened. They tend to run off quickly if something big – like a human – rips through their web.
You may want to walk around with a stick or a hand out in front of you this time of year to detect orb weaver webs before running into them face first. It’s also smart to avoid walking between objects that the spiders might use as anchor points for their webs.
Sadly, they may not be around for long — winter cooldown means they're numbers will diminish considerably.
