Spiders

Spider poop on the siding of a house or business is a common call that comes into the extension office. Hopefully, this will shed some light on the topic!

Spider-Man uses a line of silk to swing through cityscapes and subdue evildoers. But in the arthropod world, spider-women are the masters of silk. Female spiders have seven different silk glands from which they draw an array of different types of silk for different purposes, including constructing intricate webs to snare prey.

According to the Annotated List of Ohio Spiders published by the Ohio Biological Survey in 2021, our state is home to 682 species of spiders (order Araneae). Many reach maturity in late summer to early fall which is why they are so common at this time of the year.

The sun's rays or morning dew may be revealing an event that takes place in the fall of the year, spider migration.

There are almost 60 species of orb weaver spiders (family Araneidae) in Ohio. They capture and kill insects making them an important pest management bio-ally. This is the time of the year when the females of many species have reached their maximum size. Their gossamer creations are made even more noticeable if cloaked in morning dew.

There are over 600 species of spiders found in Ohio and most feed almost exclusively on insects. The spiders that are currently dominating (draping over?) landscapes are the Sheetweb Weavers (family Linyphiidae) and Funnel Weavers (family Agelenidae)

Two of our larger native spiders found in Ohio are orb weavers (family Araneidae) so-named because of their circular (orb) webs. The webs are intricate structures involving both sticky and non-sticky silk.