Am I Under Attack???
Has your Lawn
been Looking Like
this
in the mornings? 
or
Like
This?
or your shrubs
Like
This??
Well, Don't Panic!
Yes, they are "spider webs"! And, they are there, in your grass or on your shrubs most of the time. The only reason you are seeing them now ( or at least a couple of weeks ago ) was due to the hot, humid days and the morning dew settling down on them.
These webs are caused by a very small, one inch long spider called a "funnelweb spider". It can appear to be much larger due to it's additional eight long, slender legs.
Funnelweb spiders get their name from the type of webs that they weave. If you look closely you will notice a small funnel toward the middle or edge of the web.
Funnelweb spiders have very poor eyesight and spend almost all of the daylight hours hiding in this "funnel".....waiting...anticipating....their next delicious meal. The web is not sticky like most spiders but is actually slick. When an unsuspecting bug "bumps" into it or thinks this area might be a good place to fly in and take a brief nap, it finds itself slipping and sliding. Then, while it is briefly struggling and before it can regain control and "get out of Dodge", the funnelweb spider, with its lightning like speed, leaves its' funnel retreat and has itself a yummy meal.
There are several hundred known species of funnelweb spiders around the world. Those found in your yard or on your shrubs are harmless to us humans and are actually good to have around as they consume a great deal of the more unwanted bugs lurking around in the yard. However, there are some species of funnelweb spiders found in Australia that are extremely poisonous.
Bottom line is.....Relax....Don't travel to Australia....and feel relieved that you have a small army living outside your house protecting you from all those nasty little "other bugs" you hate so much.
As many of our parents use to say...."When there are spider webs on the grass in the morning, it's going to be a beautiful day"!
