Subject: Pile of spiders! What kind?
Geographic location of the bug: Mill Valley, CA, Marin County, right outside San Francisco, Northern CA
Date: 04/27/2018
Time: 03:45 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Dear Bugman,
I was out on my deck and I saw this in a spider web. My husband decided to hit it with our bug zapper and TONS of baby spiders scattered everywhere. It freaked me out. I’ve never seen a nest like this before! From a distance it looked like a piece of a plant or tree.
First two pictures arr of them huddled together and second picture is of them scattering.
Sincerely,
How you want your letter signed: Alison
Dear Alison,
These are harmless Orbweaver spiderlings, and they are probably very recently hatched. Young Orbweavers frequently disperse by ballooning away on the wind: spinning a silk thread that catches the wind and transports the individual spiderlings great distances from where they hatched.
This needs to be a lesson 101 on how to NOT treat spiders. Folks need to grow up and educate themselves on such things that are a million times smaller than they are. Treating creatures like this is pure unnecessary foolishness and ignorance. Orb weavers are ESPECIALLY beneficial to your home and surroundings.