Everything in the new house is going well....or at least it was, until yesterday.
I got up to let the dog go out to go potty. She came in with spiderwebs on her. EW. So I went out to investigate...
OMG
Two of our plants outside were completely covered in spiderwebs so thick it looked like we had just decorated for Halloween.
And crawling all over the webs were hundreds and hundreds of baby spiders. Not knowing what type they were, and seeing how close they were to the house, I got the Raid out and sprayed.
This morning I went out with the dog again. My entire lawn is covered with webs.
The baby spiders are everywhere! Flying thru the air, crawling all over the house, on the windows, screens, in the trees and bushes. I've been trying to identify them online for the past hour or two and I've got the creepy crawlies something awful here.
And the icing on the cake...lying belly up on my back patio is a dead Jerusalem Cricket. For those of you that have never had the honour of seeing one up close, here he is, the Minion of the Devil himself, crawled up from the bowels of Hell to torture me...
Oh, and this pic is just about actual size...no lie
Now if I could only identify those damn spiders! At least I've ruled out Black Widow, which was my main concern.
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read more blogs!
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legacy1
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Nov 6 @ 4:58PM
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Damn, call an exterminator quick...Yuck Spiders!
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oceanlover734
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Nov 6 @ 5:08PM
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I swear I would call a professional in for such as that many spiders! OMG I would freak if I seen that other creature to. Your blog made me remember years ago when I bought a new house and we moved in and woke up the next morning to ants covering the walls of the kitchen. No food nothing had been even fixed yet. That kept me so upset til we got the problem resolved. Hope yours is over soon.
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misschief
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Nov 6 @ 5:10PM
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Where are the other two legs? 
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jayej
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Nov 6 @ 5:10PM
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http://homepage.mac.com/bugbob/askdoctorbug/stenopelmatus.html
That guy seems to be interested in your Jersalem cricket dead or alive...ewww
When I lived on the coast this time of year spiders would hatch and were everywhere. The husband would go out with a tennis shoe and start smacking them...eww I always hated the sound of a bug crunching. I put them out and would house the house down. But really this time of year you could not go outside without walking through webs.
They were just garden spiders, but still it was creepy to get webs in your hair and face everytime you went outside, because you could never shake the feeling of where was the spider on the web when you ran into it?
J
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ColdinWisconsin
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Nov 6 @ 5:13PM
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Whew! That is one ugly mother. 
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TroutFishing
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Nov 6 @ 5:16PM
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I went to a friend's house once and he was having an infestation of lady bugs.
Harmless little lady bugs were swarming just like the movie "The Birds".
I drove 120 miles and some of them were still clinging on my van.
Insects will surely inherit the Earth.
  
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LilMissGiggles
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Nov 6 @ 5:42PM
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OMG THUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I passed out just from seeing the pictures  
I would be hollering  from somewhere thats for sure
Good Luck with that ET...You is braver than me for still being in the house
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EternalFlame
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Nov 6 @ 6:08PM
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I just went to take the dog out. I figured I'd take her out front and be safe.
WRONG!
My front lawn is just as covered as the back 
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missliss78
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Nov 6 @ 6:13PM
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OMG....I'll probably nightmare about that creature tonight! *shivers*
Serious question here....are you SURE they are spiders & not some other kind of mite? I'd be calling a bug man myself!
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KAOS2007
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Nov 6 @ 6:20PM
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 omg.. i hate spidersssss... so sorry EF!!!! Call exterminator quick!!!
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stickshiftsally
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Nov 6 @ 6:21PM
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Thanks, Trout for bringing up "The Birds". I have had nightmares since I was 8 years old from that! EF, those are some great shots of some really icky creatures! I would run, not walk to the nearest phone to call the exterminator.
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EternalFlame
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Nov 6 @ 6:24PM
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Ken is out buying bug spray even as we speak for the perimeter of the house.
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ANGRY_MUPPET
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Nov 6 @ 6:51PM
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i think you should only spray the area around house until you consult a pro,.,maybe the birds will get em.,or a freeze or frost
if ya spray yard the birds might get sick
cricket looks awesome
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EternalFlame
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Nov 6 @ 7:34PM
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Egads!
My neighbourhood isn't developed yet...there are only 4 houses finished and all around us are empty building pads. No trees or anything out front. My lawn, my neighbours lawn, and the empty pads as far as I can see are all covered with webs.
I think that there was some sort of natural mass hatching and without trees to stop them, they just all drifted on the wind till they got here. I think the webbing on the lawns is just the juvie spiders leaving them behind as they cross the grass. I don't know but it sounds good to me and that's what I'm going to believe or else I will freak out here tonight...LOL
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Sweetheart83446
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Nov 6 @ 7:42PM
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I had to show my mom your blog. On time there was a huge ass spider on the porch, so we poured lighter fluid on it it burn it, and "BAM" baby spiders went everywhere. I'm glad my yards not like that, I'd frikin burn it!
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kjac
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Nov 6 @ 8:49PM
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You know, some scorpions would take care of those spiders real quick. Ad they make great pets too!
But I gotta admit, your yard looks beautiful. Like a giant sheer silk curtain has been draped over it.
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butterfly943
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Nov 6 @ 10:04PM
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 I would be heading to a Motel
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luvshorses644
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Nov 6 @ 10:25PM
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EF...
I think they may be:
Sheetweb Spiders (Family Linyphiidae).
These small, drab spiders engineer dew speckled webbing that enshrouds fields and forest in the early morning. Their populations may reach many thousands per acre. They are very elusive and readily drop to the ground to escape danger
But get rid of them quickly.....
as for the Jerusalem Cricket... Holy Frik... ewww, ewwwww, ewwwww
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beckyiv42000
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Nov 7 @ 12:58AM
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Okay down here in So cal we call them big ass uglee bugs either "children of the earth "or "tater bugs" ..funny thing ..each of us kids have a pic from when we were younger with the tater bugs we caught,.. um them spiders?? uh yeah Im praying for a flock of birds to swoop in and take care of them for yas that is just CREEPY... good lock EF and um keep the critters inside for a while
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fenderchick
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Nov 7 @ 8:23AM
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OMG, I think I just fainted...
That would creep the crap out of me....
I thought the one Earwig I attempted to murderize when I bought this house was bad...Took me a good 5 mnutes to kill the bastid.
I hope you can get rid of them..And thanks, but no thanks...I'll hold off on the sleepover 
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Tiramisu4u
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Nov 7 @ 10:12AM
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I agree with luvshorses...thinks that is what they are...I have had them on my lawn, but in MUCH smaller amounts!!
You may have to call in the big dogs if it is a neighborhood infestation...remember
....baby spiders grow into BIG spiders!
*Makes note to send a box of Jerusalum crickets to Muppy for Christmas..*
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EternalFlame
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Nov 7 @ 10:38AM
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It's not just me, apparently...Missy just sent me to a blog from the UK that had this image:
Luvs and Tira are right...they are, most likely, these Sheetweb Spiders (also called Money Spiders and are said to bring good luck!!)
Just so long as they stay out of my house, I'm ok with them living in the yard. Spiders are, after all, beneficial to the ecosystem. I am going to rake up the webs today tho...they are not living in them that I can see and I am sick of cleaning webs off of my dog's feet.
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EternalFlame
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Nov 7 @ 10:48AM
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Members of this family occupy almost every spot on the world, from the Himalaya to beaches, from Antartica to the tropical forests.
They reach these places because the spiders can fly by wire, called "ballooning". The spider raises her abdomen and releases a thread in the breeze that grows longer and longer until the upward lift is sufficient and the spider is lifted. They can reachs heights of up to 10000 meter and are transported to every spot on the world. They are often one of the first inhabitants of a devastated area like after the eruption of the Krakatoa in August 1883. In May 1884 scientist already reported microspopic spiders spinning their webs.
So...somewhere near here, a mommy spider laid her eggs, and when they hatched, the babies all ballooned and the wind brought them here.
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SpiritEnergy
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Nov 7 @ 12:28PM
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Holy crap! Good luck you say? Man, are you gonna be LUCKY then! Wonder if you can train then as a security system like they do with guinea chickens?
Actually, it looks kind of purty! Raking would be cool.
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Cynbaby
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Nov 7 @ 3:40PM
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Wow that's wild I have never seen that before.
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