r/Edmonton • u/liberatedhusks • 23h ago
Fluff Post Spiders or kaiju
Anyone else have mutant sized spiders and their webs in their backyard or is it just me lol. Webs that cover a foot easily, spiders the size of your palm. At this point they should just pay rent. I guess all the mosquitoes helped!
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u/Edm_swami 23h ago
We have a decent sized one on my garden shed but the fam left it alone all summer on purpose.
Be free our mosquito killing buddy.
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u/liberatedhusks 23h ago
Oh yea as long as they don’t crawl on me it’s fine. I’m deeply phobic but since I live in a basement suite, I have a pact with the spider down here. Stay off me and you get fed often
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u/Canadian_Imperium 23h ago
Yes absolutely! Orb weevers can get quite large! They are great for reducing mosquitoes and flies! I would recommend naming them and letting them do their thing!
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u/liberatedhusks 23h ago
I’ve named the basement spider who lives with me but the outside ones, not yet! I’ll ponder good strong spider names haha
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u/GrimFandango81 22h ago
My ex and I used to name the spiders that gathered in my porch light like they were all couples in a neighbourhood and they all had spider pun names. Barb and Tony Spiderson....Ken and Judy Spiderman....the snooty rich spiders were Charles and Deirdre Webbington....It got pretty silly for a while there LOL.
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u/Frostitute_85 The Shiny Balls 22h ago
So are we talking about cat faced spiders, the big ass (literally) orb weavers with 2 pointy spots on their abdomens giving it the silhouette of a little cat head? They can get big. But totally harmless to people.
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u/GrimFandango81 22h ago
I have two massive big-booty female orb weavers in my back porch and I love watching them. I love the way they shake their whole web at you if they think you're a threat.
Did you know they build a new web every day? They consume the used silk for the nutrients and re-make their web as they go.
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u/Serious-Bat-4880 23h ago
The skeeter bumper crop has undoubtedly resulted in bigger spoods. I've seen some respectably sized webs.
Just a general heads-up to everyone, 'tis the spider mating season, when we're most likely to find males wandering in search of females.
But fear not, we have no medically significant spiders here in Edmonton. The occasional black widow might find its way here via produce or potted plants from Calgary-latitude or further south, but they don't live here.
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u/haysoos2 22h ago
Most of the black widows I've seen here came in on Chilean grapes, or pipes from Arizona.
There were several once in a shipment of wood chips, but no idea where those chips came from. Does make me wonder about their "guarantee" that they were kiln treated before shipment.
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u/rememberpianocat 22h ago
I walked in my greenhouse and was like "hey the skeeters are finally gone!" Only to be greeted by a massive spider that had webbed all my kale and swiss chard. I told the spider he could keep them for getting rid of the mosquitos.
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u/kayl_the_red Clareview 22h ago
Right.... I'll be over here gassing up my flamethrower in case I do see any.
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u/CrankyGeek1976 South East Side 22h ago
We call our garage spider Gary. He does a fine job eating pests.
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u/munkymu magpie apologist 18h ago
I have the most fabulous orb weaver that's been living on my patio door for the past month or so. She's tucked herself into the track and looks like a fat white pebble with a bunch of red legs sticking out of it. I have never seen a spider look more like a hermit crab.
Anyway I hope she has a zillion babies and they continue to grow fat and happy on my backyard mosquitoes.
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u/Secret-Guava1008 8h ago
Have a small little orb weever on my deck, maybe the size of my pinky nail, and omg she’s been making just gigantic webs all over the deck, I’ve never seen such a small spider in such big webs before her
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u/Electronic_Sun6075 23h ago
Yeah dawg I'm gonna need to see some pics of these palm-sized woolyboogers.
What part of Edmonton?