Alight at the end of the tunnel #phenology

One of the signs of seasonal change at our house is that there are more and more spiders to watch, catch and release or otherwise harass with integrated pest management. At the moment, we have at least one funnel weaver spider ensconced in a sidelight of the front door. When next we feel ambitious enough to sweep fallen leaves and other autumnal clutter from the front porch, steps and ramp, we'll probably sweep the webs from the entrance area at the same time.

sidelight tunnel spider and web rear view

Photo by J. Harrington

The peak of the mosquito, deer and black fly season is past for this year, so the utilitarian function of basically harmless spiders has diminished. Their entertainment value, however, is sometimes enhanced if they locate their webs, or themselves, so they readily can be watched and/or photographed. We'd be even more partial to keeping most spiders around if they were tick predators. As far as we know, that's not the case. More's the pity.

sidelight tunnel spider and web front view

Photo by J. Harrington

Once, some years ago, we we sitting in a waterfowl blind on an island in a lake in western Minnesota, probably in early October, when we saw a magical flight of spiders. Hundreds (thousands?) of teeny, tiny spiders had let out strands of silk and were sailing on the breeze, with the spiders themselves acting like tails on their silk-strand kites. Several kept losing lift and ended up getting draped over the geese decoys floating in front of us. It's the only time we've seen anything like that. It would've been worth the trip even if we hadn't seen any geese.

The folks at iNaturalist are hosting a citizen science effort to help clarify the known distribution of spiders in Minnesota. To help with identification of spiders, try Minnesota Spiders. There are several ways to relocate spiders from indoors to outdoors, without killing the arachnid. We're preferential toward the paper and cup method, but now that we think about it, we want to refresh our identification keys on brown recluse spiders. That's one we might be inclined to just smush with a slipper and be done with it, if we ever came across one. Mostly though, we try to take a "live and let live" approach with a catch and release element. After all, we've grown quite fond of one of the country's most famous barn spiders, Charlotte and her web. Plus, there's this

SPIDER

A spider lives inside my head

Who weaves a strange and wondrous web

Of silken threads and silver strings

To catch all sorts of flying things,

Like crumbs of thoughts and bits of smiles

And specks of dried-up tears

And dust of dreams that catch and cling

For years and years and years…

-Shel Silverstein      Everything On It

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