One morning last week, I went outside and saw that there were suddenly spiderwebs on all the shrubbery around the neighbourhood. What happened overnight? Did all the hatchlings come out at the same time?
I have noticed and wondered about it as well.
That’s probably exactly what happened. The mama spider lays a large number of eggs at once. Under ideal conditions, they all hatch and few are eaten by predators. Your spiders got lucky.
I don’t think this is the right time of year for them, but could it have been tent catepillars, instead of spiders? Or some other sort of silk-spinning critter?
I won’t speak for the OP, but definitely not tent caterpillars in the situations I’ve seen.
Tent caterpillars? Do they make what looks like a spider web?
I’ve noticed it here too, but I put it down to the fact that they show up more on misty mornings.
In California, at least, the orb weavers seem to be more active in the early fall. This is also prime tarantula season.
Could be you notice them more on misty mornings because the moisture in the air sticks to the webs revealing them to you. On non-misty days there may be just as many webs about but you cannot spot them as easily.
Just a guess though.
There’s always the possibility that it’s just one really, really big spider, probably from outer space. You may want to lock all of your doors and cover all of your windows with plywood, just in case.
I live near water, and often have fog. From mid summer through fall there are spider webs everywhere. The fog put drops on the webs and they all glisten in the sun, so you see them all. In the willows they go from the top of branches to the low branches in arcs. There can be hundreds of webs in a tree. By the end of August my garden flowers have baby crab spiders in many of them. You’re just missing how many there are around you. In the fall the webs start showing up in the house, because many spiders are moving in. Right now the ceiling is full of new spider webs, which I’m about to vacuum away.
That matches my observations as well. Cool.
The thing that really stood out was that it wasn’t just on my bushes. It was on all the neighbours’ bushes too. How common is that?
I’m in wa state and they’ve been pretty busy for the last few weeks. I counted 10 new webs w/spiders near the garbage can yesterday, so it’s definitely the season.