Invasion of spiders.

[brendaward]

Can anyone tell me why there are so many spiders this year? Yesterday I found a boiled one in my kettle yum! The little critters are everywhere. We can't walk outside without disturbing webs which are hanging with ten foot spans across the driveway. Thank goodness our British ones are harmless, well I hope.

[Geoff F]

Autumn is always a good time for spiders. Many of the summer species are still around and there are often juveniles of early breeders which are preparing to overwinter.

The Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) is particularly noticeable now with large females spinning huge webs.

Every year is slightly different with a weather pattern which favours some species more than others.

In my garden, besides Araneus diadematus, the flat silky sheets of Linyphia triangularus are common now; and I am seeing a lot of young Pisaura mirabilis sunning themselves on sheltered leaves. They don't build webs.

And when I look very closely at some of the smaller flat petal flowers, there are tiny juvenile crab spiders (Misumena vatia) which are also non web builders that lie in wait for passing flies.

Large Tegenaria spiders are also common now and will start trying to enter the house.

The Harvestmen can also be found now. Although not true spiders, they do superficially resemble spiders with very long legs.