I’ve been having a problem with a gigantic spider in my back yard. Including the legs and everything it is larger than my fist, and the web spreads across two feet between two tree trunks. To be perfectly honest with you, the first time I saw a gigantic spider in my backyard was the summer before the last- and that was the last time I went in the yard unless I had to. Last year I got my puppies, and since I had to let them outside, I started going in the backyard again-but I didn’t see any more gigantic spiders until this year. I saw one spider in a web between the two trees, the same as last time, and I decided that since the spider was just sitting in the web, not hurting anything I would leave it alone. Although I was scared the gigantic thing would jump on my poor little puppies and hurt them, I figured that I was probably over reacting, so I left the spider alone.

The next day, I found another huge spider on a web that was attatched to the house and the back of the garbage can. Let me tell you, I grapped the bar on the front of that garbage can and ran to the street as fast as I could - so fast, in fact, that I ran it in to a tree. Oops. I did not want that spider to get me.

A few weeks went buy, and I noticed there was another little spider in each of the spider webs. I didn’t want to kill the spiders. Although I’m not a Janist, I don’t like killing things. When I have to get a bug I won’t squish it, I’ll scoop it up with something and flush it down the toilet. Squishinq things creep me out.

I kept telling my husband about the spiders, and he kept telling me we had some bug spray. (He had a problem with a black widow in the barracks before we got married…creepy!) I kept telling him I didn’t want to kill them but, today I went out to the front yard, and there was not one, not two, but THREE!!!!! spiders in the web near the roof. There were two big ones, and one little one. I decided it was time to get kill the things if they were going to keep multiplying. I got the bug spray and starting spraying, and I saw two little spiders running away, so there were actually four spiders in the web.

I went into the backyard, and sprayed the spiders. The little one ran off, and the big one just stayed in place, so I went around to the back of the web - I figured I’d get both sides, because I coudn’t tell which side was the front, so I made sure there were that I wouldn’t be walking into any spider webs, and I walked around to the back of the web, and sprayed the spider. When I came back around I looked and saw the tip of the tree branch shimmering. I looked up in horror and realized that the whole 15 foot long branch, leaves and all, was covered in a spider web. As I looked up in disbelief, I realized that approximately 10 foot of the tree (a piece about 20 foot from the ground) was covered in the web, and that the right side of the tree that was closest to it. Let me tell you- as visions of dozens of gigantic spiders falling on me danced in my head I ran in the house.

I was wondering if I should have called the university or someone to come check out these spiderwebs, because I have never heard of a spider with a web that big, so I looked up “spider webs around trees” and found this which actually looks like what is in my back yard. I am not sure if the ones in the front yard are the same, because they were up too high for me to get a good look at them. I was really glad that I’d sprayed them after I realized that the little spider was a male just waiting to get a chance to mate. I hope I caught them in time -I don’t want anymore spiders in my yard.

They say that Golden Orb Weaving Spiders make the largest and strongest web, and that the silk is golden in color. It looked silvery to me though.

If you’d like more information about these spiders, you can check here and here.

Now I’m off to try to quit feeling like there are spiderwebs all over me. Ick!