Spiders are, no doubt, among the most hated and feared pests we have around. Let’s face it — they can be pretty creepy with their many, moving legs and numerous eyeballs. Having them infesting your yard sounds like the beginning of a nightmarish horror movie. Grass spiders are members of a genus of common yard critters that, as their name implies, inhabit short grass in search of food. If you suspect that what you have seen in your yard is indeed a grass spider infestation, then you’ll need to know how to properly identify them — before clearing their food sources from your lawn to get rid of them. This includes knowing the types of spider webs you find in your garden and also recognizing the grass spider’s appearance.
Grass spiders have venomous bites, but that doesn’t mean they’re harmful to human beings. On the contrary, they’re quite shy and will likely scurry away if you get near. Even if they tried to bite you, they wouldn’t get very far because of how small they are. Although they pose no threat to us, it’s still understandable that you would want them gone. Grass spiders can easily be mistaken for other spiders, such as hobo spiders, which belong to the same family, house spiders, or wolf spiders because of their similarity in appearance. It is for this reason that identifying the type of spider infestation you have is key to keeping them off of your property.
Grass spiders spin funnel webs and have specific cephalothoracic markings
Differentiating between spider species is a difficult task if you have arachnophobia and can’t stand even the smallest arachnid. But, unless you want to get professional pest control involved, you’ll have to brace yourself for the job. Grass spiders are typically yellowish-brown and have two darker stripes from their head to back. These markings can guide you to tell them apart from domestic house spiders. Grass spiders are small, growing up to a quarter of an inch long, but they’re still bigger than house spiders. They live in low grass, but you’ll probably spot them by their sheet funnel webs first. The grass spider’s famous web is one of the damning ways to identify it. Wolf spiders don’t make webs. Instead, they dig burrows beneath the ground. House spiders have sheet webs without funnels. Hobo spiders build funnel webs, but they don’t have dark stripes on their cephalothorax like grass spiders.
If your yard is infested with grass spiders, you need to focus on keeping your environment clean. Getting rid of grass spiders means plugging up their food source — insects like ants. To get rid of ants, don’t leave food outside. Make sure your outdoor garbage can is clean, and keep your other garden pests gone too. That means getting rid of the aphid and moth larvae population. Mow your grass regularly. Once your space is neat, the spiders have nowhere to hide and nothing to snack on.
