It happens all the time you’ll go outside look in the bushes or on a downspout and see an enormous black and yellow spider, yup summer is here and they aren’t hiding anymore. I get so many questions from customers asking about these spiders so without further ado…
What are these black and yellow spiders? They are called Black and Yellow Garden Spiders. Their scientific origin is the Argiope genus. If you look at their legs they have a distinct fade from black to a yellowish-orange color and back to black. Their abdomen is black with paralleled yellow coloring and dots matching on each side of it. These black and yellow spiders are also referred to as writing spider, golden orb spider, corn spider, scribbler spider, and golden garden spider.
Read more to learn about the benefits of having these astonishing garden spiders around your home and garden and ways that you can eliminate them if you don’t want them around.
I didn’t mention this above, but the male spiders don’t look anything like the female. You can usually find the males in the late summer to early fall when it is time to mate.
Are Black And Yellow Garden Spiders Poisonous?
No, although most spiders have venom that they produce to help immobilize and eliminate their prey, it is simply not enough to be considered poisonous to humans. If one did happen to bite you, you may get a bite mark that could become red and itchy. The pain from a spider this size is said to be that of a bee sting.
Can Garden Spiders Jump?
Yes, the garden spider will sit directly in the middle of their web and when they feel the vibration of their meal hit the web they will jump on them inject them with venom to stop them from moving and then they wrap them up to eat them at a time of their choosing.
How Big Do Black And Yellow Garden Spiders Get?
- Males: may get up to 8 mm in size.
- Females: can get up to 3 times the male size at 30 mm in length.
These are not considered to be small spiders. If you have ever seen one then you know what I mean.
Where Do Black And Yellow Garden Spiders Make Their Web?
Any foliage that is exposed to plenty of sunlight makes for a good place for the black and yellow garden spiders to make their webs.
Other Places You May Find Black And Yellow Garden Spiders Can Be:
- Gardens
- Sheds
- Wood Piles
- 1st StoryWindows
- Door Frames
Most webs aren’t placed much higher than knee to shoulder height and the way you know is if it is one of these spiders is because you will see a mesmerizing zig-zag pattern going straight down the middle of the web.
The zig-zag pattern on the web helps reinforce the web making it very strong as to support the weight of this massive writing spider, and to camouflage the spider while it sits upside down on the stabilimentum or zig-zag part to wait for their prey.
Are Garden Spiders Good?
Yes, garden spiders are excellent hunters and help reduce the population of overpopulating pests. If you like to work in a garden one of the nicest things is that they eat aphids. Aphids is a species of pest that eat leaves and destroy crops, bushes, and other foliage that puts lots of stress on the plants and in many cases kills them.
What Do Garden Spiders Eat?
Garden spiders will eat a myriad of bugs the most common things they eat are:
- Grasshoppers
- Aphids
- Bees
- A Few Wasp Species
- Flies and many other insects.
They will also eat small vertebrates like:
- Skinks
- Geckos
- And The Carolina Anole
Basically Small Lizards
Black and yellow garden spiders usually will not eat their prey right after they caught it so that they can continue to hunt.
How Long Do Garden Spiders Live?
Once a garden spiderling leaves the spider sac, it has been waiting in the sac for winter to end so it can emerge. The female garden spider lives for almost a year. After they hunt all summer and mate in the early fall, they make their egg sacs and will usually die by the first hard frost.
How Many Eggs Are In A Garden Spiders Egg Sac?
The black and yellow garden spider only mating once a year can produce anywhere from 300 – 1000 eggs approximately in a single egg sac, and will make 1 – 4 egg sacs that she will place close in proximity of each other. This makes it possible for a black and yellow garden spider to produce up to 4000 eggs in a single season.
What Does A Garden Spider Egg Sac Look Like?
A garden spider’s egg sac is almost a perfect circle that is carefully wrapped in the female’s silk. There is one end of the sac where she seals the sac that makes it not a perfect circle. Check out this image. The sac is light brown in color and consists of multiple layers that are strong enough to protect her eggs from most predators.
How Do I Keep Garden Spiders From Getting Inside?
Garden Spiders can accidentally get inside your home, this is because they may make their web in a door frame or a window. The best way to avoid spiders from making their way into your home is by cobweb dusting around the edges of all doors, windows, porch covers, downspouts, eaves, soffits, and vents.
That being said I do recommend reading my post about the best cobweb duster for DIY pest control! (this is a link to that post). In this post, I will tell you all the pros and cons about which cobweb duster pole and head that works the best and lasts you a long time. It is also really inexpensive. There are some companies out there that only brush your home down and that is a complete service that they provide to control, not kill spiders.
I support your decision if that is the way you would like to do pest control, but if you want to take it a step further…
You could add a little dust to the head of your cobweb duster. Using dust will eliminate spider populations that are introduced to the applied areas.
That being said the dust I recommend is Tempo 1% Dust (click here to see it on my recommended products page). Be sure to read how to use the dust and the conditions of using it.
Now that we have covered a good way to keep spiders out of your home, I think it only fair share with you a good residual spray that you can apply inside and outside your home to keep spiders away and get rid of existing infestations.
What Can I Do To Eliminate Black And Yellow Garden Spiders?
Like I mentioned above brushing your home for existing webs is a great start in keeping them out of your home, now we need to put a residual spray down to keep them away. It just so happens that I have an amazing product to recommend to you for spiders. The product I recommend is Demand CS (check out Demand CS on my recommended products page). Demand CS does an amazing job on spiders and is a pillar chemical in the pest industry for a myriad of other pests as well. Demand CS is a microencapsulated pesticide which means that it suspends the chemical into millions of microcapsules that release over time. So when a spider walks across your barrier it will break some of the microcapsules and attack the spiders’ nervous system until it is eliminated.
Summary
Garden Spiders are not poisonous, if they don’t bother you then maybe you don’t want to use chemicals to get rid of them. It is also okay if they scare you so bad that you just can’t bear the thought of them being around. Whatever your choice is, be sure to follow all label instructions and safety precautions. It is unlawful to use a pesticide in any manner that is not consistent with it’s labeling. I hope my article was helpful in learning a little more about black and yellow garden spiders.
Thanks For Buggin Out With Me!
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What Time Of Year Do Spiders Lay Eggs?
I have always wondered about this even before I became a pest exterminator.
What time of year do spiders lay their eggs? The brief answer is spider multiply all year. Even though they will appear less active in the winter and fall they will still mate, lay eggs and feed.
Do Spiders Attack Humans Unprovoked?
Ok, so do spiders attack people unprovoked? No, although spiders are predators, they will not attack people without a justified reason in their minds at least. Whether you know you did or did not provoke a spider it does happen and a spider may react giving you an unwanted result.
