Spiders and their webs are beyond common in the mountains of Appalachia. Seems like I notice them more as fall of the year comes around each year.
You can’t walk anywhere outside without getting in the middle of a web. It usually ends up in my eyelashes and I can’t hardly get it out.
Earlier this summer we shared a huge spider in one of our videos. We’d never seen one like it before.
Several folks told us it was a Juro spider which is an invasive species from Asia. I read they were first detected in WNC in 2021 so maybe they’ve been here but we’ve only noticed them this year.
Most things I read online said they are harmless although their giant webs can be annoying to walk into or to clean up if one takes up residence in an inconvenient place.
Spider webs were used to stop bleeding back in the day, and are still used by folks when there’s nothing else handy.
This time of the year writing spiders are busy weaving their webs on all the eaves of our house. An old wives tales says the person’s name the spider ‘writes’ will soon die. Another one advises you should never speak someone’s name near a writing spider because you might give them the idea for their next web and hasten the person’s passing.
I used to be terrified of spiders. I lost my fear after seeing a gigantic wolf spider in the house when the girls were babies. I was too scared to get it out and called Pap. By the time he came to handle it we couldn’t find it. I worried about it getting on my babies during the night and decided I wouldn’t ever be afraid of them again.
One time when I was a girl Granny sent me to the clothes line. I don’t recollect if I was hanging out or taking in, but when I walked by the eave of the house I thought one of the big writing spiders got on me. You never heard such carrying on as I did!
Everyone came running outside to see what was wrong. Turns out my spider was actually the tie of the clothespin bag falling off my shoulder onto my back. I got teased about that for a good long while.
Here’s some other folklore about spiders:
- If you wish to thrive leave spiders alive
- If you get too close to a spider and it counts your teeth you’ll die
- If you see a spider on your clothes it means good luck (maybe I shouldn’t have run from all those spiders as a kid)
- You should go around a spider’s web because if you tear it down you’ll for sure have bad luck
- Eat a wadded up spider web to relieve asthma
- Stuff a spider web down into a cavity to ease a tooth ache
Have you seen the Juro spiders at your house?
Thank you for the lovely birthday wishes for the girls. They really enjoyed them all!
Last night’s video: Fresh Deer Meat with Creamed Peas & New Potatoes for Supper.
Tipper
I’d love to send you a photo of the black snake that is loving in the stacked cinder blocks that I use as a mailbox post. It must be 5 ft long and ever so shiny. It must be warm in there on these cold mountain nights.
I think there was a Joro Spider on the back of my sons CRV at the license plate this summer and a turkey pounced on it and ate it. What a racket. The turkey also scratched the paint on the hatchback with his talons. That is the only one I have noticed. We have lots of Wolf, Grass and other spiders in the yard and many kinds in the house sometimes. Spiders web is supposed to contain a lot of vitimin K and that is why it will help clot blood.
I’ve been scared of spiders as long as I can remember. One of my first memories is of being in the bathtub and laying down to wet my hair and seeing a bunch of granddaddy long legs on the ceiling…my mama says no such thing ever happened but I have that memory for some reason! Once when I was still very young mama and daddy had a 2 door mustang and obviously my spot to ride was in the backseat. Well, early one Saturday morning we went to go someplace and after climbing in the back I looked up to find a big spider had made a web right in the upper corner beside me and buddy I came tearing outta that car slap over top of daddy to get away from it. He laughed about that for the longest time. It’s a good thing we hadn’t took off yet or I probably would have made him wreck because I was coming out of there one way or another lol. Where I live now we have those funnel weaver spiders allover the place and I can’t stand them. There’s so many webs on our woodpile I’m thinking of braving the cold with something besides wood heat this year just in case any try to survive under the bark or something and get carried in the house. One of those devils got in the house last year and made a web right by my husband’s side of the bed between the wall and the headboard and I liked to have died…I was seriously considering sleeping on the couch after that! I know it’s an irrational fear but I can’t help it…it’s the legs and the fangs I cannot get past.
The words invasive species conjure concern (see info about Lantern flies) because they generally mean some disruption amongst your current flora and fauna. If their diets require a certain thing that is currently supporting other species, you may see a decline in that species. Or maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll dine on something that is a nuisance, say chiggers for example. Or maybe mosquitos. Of course that would harm bats , birds, other spiders or other pollinators. Best keep an eye on your ecosystem.
My momma was bitten by a brown recluse. It left a huge dimple on her leg and I don’t think it ever went away. Spiders, hate, hate, hate them. Love Cardinals/Redbirds, both bird’ and St. Louis Cardinals/ Redbirds. Knew them both by both names.
Nothing to do with invasive spiders but other things. I live in the southern end of Greenville County, SC, the nearest small town of my PO address is 15 miles away. We have been seeing coyotes for several years. My yard has had small holes dug in it all summer long. When I found out what was doing it, it was an armadillo ( possum on a half shell.) I am seeing more and more of them ran over on these back roads. Maybe they are a blessing, I haven’t seen near as many fire ant hills this year, I thought it was because of the dry weather.
How do spiders keep from getting tangled in their own webs?
I’m in Atlanta right now and they (JaroSpiders)are everywhere! I had never seen one before even though I live in WNC. I have a history similar to Tippers with spiders, so I pray they don’t migrate to my neck if the woods! One even set off the motion house alarm here in Atlanta. My grandson said the web is strong like guitar strings. Yikes!!
I thinkwe haveseen that kind this year too. They are certainly interesting looking!
I am not a fan of spiders since I was bitten by a brown recluse a few years ago when we first moved into our house. It had been sitting empty a while, and the recluses were very busy. I know these others are not poisonous, but I go wide around them nonetheless. I like your clothesline spider story!
I saw one several years ago in the hay field. Wow! I also saw a similar large spider in Bermuda. The colors were beautiful and the babies in the web resembled little pearls.
We have plenty of spider webs in central Georgia, too!!!! When taking my little dog outside for a walk, especially after dark, I sometimes walk through spider webs on our back porch—it always freaks me out!!!
Juro spiders can stay in NC, and that’s still too close for comfort. They are not welcome in KY! I was cleaning a rental property a few years ago when I was bitten on the ankle by something while mowing a dense jungle of grass and weeds. The suspect was a spider or a snake, but I did not see a snake. After failing to find healing from treatment at the dermatologist, wound care doctor, and others, I eventually ended up at a wound care center, where I became a familiar face for several months. That’s why I hate spiders.
I’ve had these Juro spiders all summer. Saw a post that said the web is strong enough to capture small birds including the hummingbirds. I found that Dawn powerwash in the spray form will kill them. They aren’t native and they are a pain walking around my garden!
The spider webs are so thick and numerous on my boxwoods that I won’t need to decorate for Halloween!
Cindy- mine are too.
I have been seeing one or two very small black spiders in the house in the last week. I just step on them. When I lived in Charlottesville my husband and I were having coffee in the living room one morning, looked over at the fireplace and these large legs were sticking through a vent beside it. He opened the vent and out fell a wolf spider. Our dog was bit by black widow spiders, and we found her one afternoon laying still on the bank beside the house. We thought she was dead until I saw one of her eyes twitch. My husband and son ran her down to the vet. At the time we didn’t know what had happened to her. The vet gave her some IV meds and she came around. My husband turned her doghouse upside down and found nests of black widows near the roof. Our dog recovered without any problems that same day.
I’ve been scared of spiders since as far back as I can remember but not as much, now at 64. A few years back, we visited our daughter’s family while they were living in Astoria, Oregon. I have never seen so many spiders and such huge webs. Everyone’s hedges were so covered, it was like they were decorated for Halloween! About the writing spiders- we were always told to smile at them and they’d write our names but that was as far as the lore went. Honestly, I probably showed them my teeth in a grimace of fear plenty of times, but I don’t think I ever had a smile for a spider. Except Charlotte…and I had smiles and tears both for her. One last thing- my favorite pastor once told us about walking face first through a huge web and that he felt it on him the rest of the day…just couldn’t put it behind him. He said “That’s the Kingdom of God, people. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable.” I really understood what he meant, I believe.
I’ve never seen one of those Juro spiders around here but we have lots of Writing spiders and Wolf spiders. I don’t mind them but Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders are another thing.
I am pretty terrified of spiders. I know it’s ridiculous, but that’s how I feel. If they want to stay alive, they need to not come into my house. Who knows?…maybe someone teased me with a spider when I was a kid? This time of year, we see lots of them in the garden and pretty much everywhere.
My mom was a big defender of spiders. We were to leave them alone because they keep the peskey bugs down to a minimum.
My two sisters and I, when we started working, rented and apartment together. At one point we lived about 9 miles from our parents. One night, my sister was reading in bed and she noticed our cat was staring in her direction. She looked down to the side of her mattress where the cat was focused and there on the sheet was a HUGE wood spider. she was out of that bed faster than a cannon shot! My other sister and I ran out of our bedroom to find out what was going on and we all started screaming. We called our dad, (mind you, it was 11:00 PM)! Just like some of Chitter and Chattter stories, dad to the rescue! He came over and caught the critter in a large mason jar and took it home to show mom and to release it into the garden.
I know that Brown Recluse spiderwebs are asymmetrical in shape and usually are in dark places
Joro spiders have been in Hall County, GA (Gainesville) for about 5 years. I first saw them in Don Carter State Park about this time of year, just a few then. Now my garden has lots of them but, funny thing, they have shrunk and are now about the size of a quarter, legs and all. Spiders go “ballooning” along about now, shooting out a strand and letting it get longer and longer until the wind lift takes them airborne. Then they drift until the strand catches and stops them. That is why they seem to be everywhere – they are. Spiders and me just go our separate ways. I just try to not tangle with their webs – which doesn’t work. I don’t recall hearing any spider lore growing up. Seems odd to me I didn’t. ¶ By the way, on a different subject, I searched BP&A for the word “redbird” because something made me curious. The search returned only 2 results, each the same, from Mr. Miller’s Pigeon Roost column from 1964 about a woman with a pet redbird. In southeast KY where I grew up the it was very common for the cardinal to be called “redbird”. There was a community called Redbird in Whitley County. I’m guessing it was a post office name.
Replace the pilcrow by hitting enter
twice if you want to start a new paragraph.
Ron, like you in my area cardinals have always in my lifetime been called redbirds.
I live in North Georgia, about an hour and half south of yall. We got the joros 3 years ago and they were absolutely awful, you couldn’t walk anywhere outside without a stick to tear down the webs. I would advise to kill everyone you find, they lay hundreds of thousands of eggs and you will be covered up with them in no time. They show up in August around here and we start killing them right away, luckily we’ve been able to get ahead of them and haven’t had an infestation as bad as the first time!
You can stanch blood flow from a cut by stuffing the wound with a wad of spider web, or so I’ve heard. I pefer direct pressure and a sterile bandage.
We had the Juro Spiders in the Fall of last year but haven’t seen any this year. They came and built webs and I’m pretty sure the eaves cleaners(wrens)got them. No spiders or bugs last very long around my home unless they hide really well. I just discovered that I’m sharing one of my gardens with a ground snake which I don’t mind, as it eats the earwigs and slugs amongst other things. I think spiders are also one of the insects that make up its diet. Have a lovely day and weekend, I was thankful for the much needed rain.
We had the Juro Spiders in the Fall of last tear but haven’t seen any this year. They came and built webs and I’m pretty sure the eaves cleaners(wrens)got them. No spiders or bugs last very long around my home unless they hide really well. I just discovered that I’m sharing one of my gardens with a ground snake which I don’t mind, as it eats the earwigs and slugs amongst other things. I think spiders are also one of the insects that make up its diet. Have a lovely day and weekend, I was thankful for the much needed rain.
I have heard they can predict how many snows you will have, but don’t recall how. I think it is how how close to the ground they build their web. Hope Granny has a good day today. God bless.
I have lots of Juro spiders in my yard. So annoying but at least they are harmless!
It was fun to watch you and Matt fix supper together. I was surprised when the peas were not the green English peas which is what my mama always used. I love peas. Any variety!
Love and prayers for Granny and all your sweet family❣️
those wolf spiders are bigger than any normal human might imagine them to be. i was siting on the porch of my brasstown cabin a few years back when one if them plopped down from the railing. thumped was more like it. thudded.
I’ve read about the Juror spiders when we’ve been down south traveling. As far as I know they’re not up in Indiana. Up here we have Fisher spiders, which are huge! As long as a spider is outside I don’t have a problem with them, in my house, they’re going to be gone ASAP by whatever means that is necessary!
Happy belated Birthday to Corie and Katie!
Spiders have been very busy around our garden, garage and back porch. It seems like since the weather has cooled a bit spiders are everywhere our property. I’ve seen writer spiders and black spiders make some pretty impressive webs. Most have been too tall for me to run into, but the single web lines get me every time I take our dogs out. My husband says after seeing the first web earlier this month he could tell cooler weather was coming because the webs are running everywhere. We don’t kill spiders as long as they are stay outside our house.
Spiders, snakes, bugs etc do not bother me, bees do. I don’t panic but a bee will get my full attention. I have never had any luck with any bee I have encountered being one of Tipper’s friendly bees. I recently read of an invasive hornet beginning to show up in SC. The last time I cut grass (over 2 weeks ago) I was continually running into spider webs around the bushes or hanging from tree limbs. We are bone dry at my home, rain was predicted for yesterday, I watched the weather radar and there was rain all around but not a drop for me, maybe today. At least I am not having to cut grass. Speaking of rain, I have been seeing for next week there are concerns about some type of tropical weather system affecting the SC coast and then maybe coming on up in the direction of Greenville. I would like to get some rain, but after Helene, this concerns me.
We’ve been having those big Juror spiders here for a while. You can tear the web down and it’ll be back tomorrow. It’s so strong, not quite as much as a guitar string, but similar. You can sure tell if someone walks into a web, everyone becomes a karate champion!!
Lol!
Karate champion! – now that’s funny and so true!!!
I don’t know if those spiders are common to the United States or not, I’ve seen a lot of strange ones lately, some kind of invasive species,