Sheet Web Spiders Invade North Memphis Fields and Houses in Tennessee

Summary: Sheet web spiders invade North Memphis fields and houses in Tennessee during Thanksgiving week, according to WMC Action News 5's report Nov. 23, 2015.

photographs of sheets of spider silk in North Memphis by WMC Action News 5 @WMCActionNews5, via Facebook Nov. 23, 2015

Frost-like spider webs are taking over a half mile (0.81 kilometers) of southwestern Tennessee in the area of May Street and Chelsea Avenue in North Memphis, according to WMC Action News 5's report Nov. 23, 2015.

The spider webs bring just days before Thanksgiving the frosty precursors of a white Christmas to the grasses of the Afro-American historic 19th- and 20th-century district in downtown Memphis. Residents calculate the harmless sheet web spider populations to run in the millions. They describe spider invasions from the fields to house exteriors and interiors.

Ida Morris, a North Memphis resident interviewed by WMC Action News 5, explains that “I’ve seen about 20 on my porch just in the last day.”

Neighborhood resident Debra Lewis finds that “It’s like a horror movie. They’re just in the air; they’re flying everywhere. They [are] all on the house, on the side of the windows.” The sheet web spiders get inside the same way that people do, according to neighborhood resident Frances Ward: “When I got up this morning, it was like spiders all over my door; they were coming in my house.” Neighborhood residents hurry their families inside and out of houses to minimize the entry points.

Ida Morris indicates that residents need help: “Clean this area up and spray for these spiders and make it safe. There are kids running around. A spider could bite the kids or anything.”

Susan Riechert, former president of the Arachnological Society and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee, judges the sheet-like web-making and sudden swarms not at all unusual for the animal, the location and the season: “Young juvenile spiders of most families disperse by sending out a swath of silk threads that may be over a meter [3.28 feet] in length. Particular air currents favor ballooning. This would explain the fact that thousands to hundreds of thousands may take off at the same time. Caught by the air currents, the spiderlings have no control over where they will land, but it is not surprising that they may fall in the same area.”

Mild autumns keep survival rates high. Ballooning events leave ecosystems healthy when spiders consume springtime aphids, flies, leafhoppers and mosquitoes. Professor Reichert minimizes the wait until early 2016: “Totally harmless. Without mouth parts that would even be large enough to pierce our skin.”

Whether using fangs and venom glands or not, spiderlings number among unpleasant surprises since Memphis Zoo curator Steve Reichling cautions: “It’s a mass dispersal of the millions of tiny spiders that have always been in that field, unnoticed till now. It could be juveniles -- millions -- in a big emergence event, or adults of a tiny species -- probably a sheet web spider -- leaving for some reason possibly knowable only to them.”

spiderling at takeoff point (high point in habitat) for ballooning (catching air or electric currents by releasing threads from abdomen); sketch by Chris Buddle: Chris Buddle @CMBuddle, via Twitter May 23, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

photographs of sheets of spider silk in North Memphis by WMC Action News 5: WMC Action News5 @WMCActionNews5, via Facebook Nov. 23, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/WMCActionNews5/posts/10153292436207756

spiderling at takeoff point (high point in habitat) for ballooning (catching air or electric currents by releasing threads from abdomen); sketch by Chris Buddle: Chris Buddle @CMBuddle, via Twitter May 23, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/CMBuddle/status/602081602571743232

For further information:

Bill's Home Service @bugzaz. 24 November 2015. "Spider invasion in Memphis! You know who to call if it ever happened in Southern Arizona!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/bugzaz/status/669221766930141184

Chris Buddle ‏@CMBuddle. 23 May 2015. "From ballooning spiders to the taxonomy of ant-mimics . . . it is Spiderday!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/CMBuddle/status/602081602571743232

euronews (in English). 22 November 2015. "US: Giant spider web sets Memphis residents on edge." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnQZuZoN5u4

Feltman, Rachel. 23 November 2015. "A Giant Blanket of Spiderwebs Appeared in Tennessee, But Don't Panic." The Washington Post > News > Speaking of Science.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/11/23/a-giant-blanket-of-spiderwebs-appeared-in-tennessee-but-dont-panic/

Madden, Ursula. 20 November 2015. "Millions of Spiders Infest Mid-South Neighborhood." WMC Action News 5. Updated 23 Nov. 2015.
Available @ http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/30573866/millions-of-spiders-infest-mid-south-neighborhood

Nagesh, Ashitha. 21 November 2015. "Don't Panic, But a Town Has Just Been Taken Over by Millions of Spiders." Metro.
Available @ http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/21/dont-panic-but-a-town-has-just-been-taken-over-by-millions-of-spiders-5517606/

WMC Action News5 @WMCActionNews5. 23 November 2015. "At first glance this may just look like frost on the ground, but it's actually millions of spiders showing out in one Mid-South neighborhood." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WMCActionNews5/posts/10153292436207756