Complete Guide To The Orchard Orb Weaver Spider

Orchard Orb Weaver Spider Notes

• Orchard Orb Weaver Spiders are common throughout North Carolina during the warmer months.
  • Juveniles over-winter and emerge in the spring to finish developing into full adults (Gaddy 2009).
• Look for Orchard Orb Weaver Spiders in moist forests, along stream and pond edges, and in home gardens and suburban landscaping.
  • These spiders hang upside down from the orb webs they build in low bushes and tree branches.
    • The spiders spin a tangle of silk strands under the capture orbs and angle their webs between horizontal and vertical.
• Orchard Orb Weaver Spiders are diurnal, so casual observers can admire their beautiful colors and the precise way they navigate across their webs during the day, when sunlight illuminates the spiders.
• Like all spiders, Orchard Orb Weaver Spiders help humanity by preying on most pests that infest our crop plants, like fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural crops.
  • Although Orchard Orb Weavers are small spiders compared to some of their larger orb weaver relatives, they are powerful predators that eat a huge number of insect pests.
  • In one research study, scientists studied the feeding efficacy of spiders for control of Silverleaf Whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci), which are major agricultural pests.
  • The Orchard Orb Weaver spiders used in the experiment “consumed the most whiteflies (24.66 ± 1.26 and 51.33 ± 2.02 flies) in 24 h and 48 h, respectively”, compared to the other three spiders studied (Wagan et al. 2019, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48595083).