Among the most interesting and elaborate creations of nature, there are spider webs. Not only can spiders use these fantastic designs to house and protect themselves, but all kinds of purposes, including catching prey. Awareness about the spider webs will enable American homeowners to understand the value of these natural pest predators as well as how to identify the likely species of spiders that they will find in their homes.
Where Do Spiders Usually Build Their Webs?
Spiders are tactical engineers as far as the placement of spider webs is concerned. They select their sites perfectly, keeping in view various major factors that increase their survival rates and success in preying on their victims.
Spider webs are most likely to found in high-traffic insect zones. Spiders would locate webs adjacent to the possible insect flying routes, mostly at night, at the source of light or insect accumulation, like lit windows. The sites offer the most chance of capturing airborne prey.
Raised and safer places are also essential. The spider webs most commonly found on the corners, under eaves, crawl spaces, basements and other hard-to-reach places. The places provide shelter against the weather and predators, and web-sitting points.
Vegetation and buildings in the open are perfect as well. A lot of spiders build webs in trees, bushes and between branches where there are many insects. Outdoor furniture, gardens and porches offer the best locations to have web spots.
The positions where the spider webs are set are very strategic so that the spider has the maximum chance of capturing its prey and minimal chances of facing danger. This proves more of an adaptive trait of spiders to move their webs to new places when they consider a given area to lack prey.
Understanding Black Widow Spider Webs
Black widow spider web: Another widely known web in North America also has an easy identification. The webs are peculiar to spiders with distinct features that ensure they are different when compared to other webs constructed by spiders.
Webs of the black widow spiders are highly irregular in appearance and disorderly. Contrary to their ideal geometric designs of orb web webs, the webs of the black widow spiders are irregular, also looking tangled and frantically made. But in reality, this seeming randomness is very well thought-out architecture.
There are three levels of structure in the web of the black widow spider. The top part has very good holding strings, and this makes it hard to tear off the net in case of flying prey/debris. The core section includes entangled threads, which use to trap the prey, and the lower section involves trap threads that are vertical to trap crawling insects.
The black widow spider web building process produces a crackling noise reminiscent of cellophane wrappings when it is physically broken, owing to the super-strength of the silk. This is power because it aids in the feeding strategy of the spider and guards against environmental destruction.
The places where the black widow spider webs mainly found are near the ground and in dark and remote places. These spiders like to construct their webs in wood piles, under the eaves, inside hollow stumps and around boxes and corners of windows and garages. In houses, places such as crawl spaces, attics, basements, and other unattended places has known to harbour black widow spider webs.
Understanding Southern House Spider Webs
The Southern House spider web is another unusual web structure usually prevalent in American homes. These nets possess specific features that make them unique compared to other structures of spiders.
The Southern House spider web looks flat, tangled, with a unique woolly feel. The Southern House spiders have a different way of trapping as compared to the sticky spider webs. The silk does not look smooth and sticky, but fuzzy and cottony.
The Southern House spider has a special technique of silk production in its web construction. They are cribellate spiders; therefore do not use adhesive webbing as many spiders do. Rather, they have their legs cover in webbing, which is combed across a speciality plate called the cribellum, resulting in fine, velcro-like netting which traps insect legs.
The web build-up of a Southern House spider is radial, meaning it goes out spreading from a central hole or crack. They also have a unique shape whereby the web seems to burst out of a hole or cavity where the spider is hiding, and is easily identifiable.
The patterns of the Southern House spider web placement are normally at higher elevations within the topography of human buildings. These spiders mostly build their homes in cracks and crevices of homes, garages and sheds to make their webs. They are usually found in the structure of buildings, especially dark corners of window sills, shutters and overhangs.
The Southern House spider webs are commonly found outdoors on plants, cacti, vegetables, and vegetation and tree bark. The spiders can also build webs on homes, barns, bridges, and other artificial areas, always in areas of protection and good anchor points.
How Long Do Spiders Live?
The longevity of spiders differs considerably with species, gender and the conditions of the environment. The knowledge about spider lifespan would assist the owner of the house to value the wonders of nature and how these animals improve the level of natural pest control.
Many spiders have a lifespan of about a year to two years, but sometimes their lifespan depends on their type. The birth rates comprise the females that usually outlive the males in almost all species of spiders. This is where males will die after mating, and it is either as a result of the mating process or it can caught in a mating succession, thus consumed by the female. Also, women have developed to have a longer lifespan, so that during their lifetime they can guarantee children and the success of reproduction.
The basic life span of a common house spider is one to two years. The life span of garden spiders is normally one year, whereas the females of the orb-weaver species live approximately one year and males for about some months.
Some of these environmental factors do matter a lot when it comes to the longevity of spiders. Spiders that reside in secured/confined, unexposed habitats and enjoy a good supply of food ought to have a very long life compared to those that are vulnerable to foes, extreme weather, and human beings. Wild spiders tend to have short lifespans as compared to captive individuals because they constantly lack shelter and food.
Conclusion
Knowledge of spider behaviour and webs can be a good point of reference to learn more about them. These are some amazing creatures that naturally regulate pests at home and in the garden. When approaching the irregular black widow spider web or the woolly Southern House spider web, there is a reason to know these structures to, first of all, know which spider species are present and to understand how ecologically valuable they are.
In the case of homeowners in America, knowing the life expectancy of spiders and their webs would, in turn, guide their choice in the control of the pest. Instead of getting rid of these useful predators right away, think about the insects that they will remove by eating flies, mosquitoes, and nuisance insects. The majority of them are quite harmless to people, yet highly beneficial to house and garden ecosystems.
Whenever the need to call in professional pest control is needed, always depend on SayNoPest to give intensive spider management services. We recognise that the most effective pest management measures must ensure that the homestead stays comfortable and at the same time, there is protection of the overall ecological balance in the environment.
When we realise the intricacy and beauty of a spider web, we begin to admire the creatures which are generally misunderstood but have learnt the art of survival due to the excellence in engineering. The design of a black widow spider web or that of a Southern House spider is quite impressive because we see nature goes a long way in producing functional art that many will even say humanity has modelled after it.
