Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Keith13 on December 16, 2008, 09:26:27 am
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I have a hive that seems to attract a bunch of black bulky looking spiders. It only seems to happen to one hive in a line of four. What the spiders do is web up the hole in the front of my inner cover then spin little cocoons of webs in which they hide. So far I have left them pretty much alone. I used to scrape them away but they would always return so finally I figured I would leave them they might eat a SHB or two. I had the bees take off after one when I was opening the hive the spider fell on top of the frames and the bees were on em like white on rice. Does anybody else see this or is it a issue I should be concerned with?
Keith
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Is this an issue for me with you having spiders....Not for me... :-D
Like you said, kill them today, and they are back tomorrow. Ok, maybe not the same spider, but I'm sure a relative or close Friend... :-D
I usually don't think twice about them.
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Spiders are nothing. When we in Texas last year there were scorpions in the hives with the bees....
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Sounds like what we call a Wolf Spider. No harm.
http://images.google.com/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en&q=american%20wolf%20spider&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
The BLACK WIDOWS we have is what really give me a scare!!! Find them in old equipment and under bottom boards more than I care to mention!
http://images.google.com/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en&q=Black%20widow&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
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Yeah, I wouldn't worry bout it. The bees will take care of them if they enter the hive. They're just looking for shelter and are eating bugs that might actually be a problem. Up here in the northwest we have a problem with Earwigs which are disgusting but totally harmless.
Sean Kelly
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As for as them creating a problem for your bees, extremely, extremely unlikely, to the point of impossible, they just don't consume enough to be detrimental to a honeybee colony.
I would however id them to make certain you don't have one of the poisonous variety as mentioned, that being black and brown widows and the most dreadful, brown recluse. If I had to guess I would also say you prob have some type of wolf spider.
...JP
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An old wife's tale used to say that the reason a black widow spider has an hour glass figure on its abdomen is that when you get bitten by one it is time to die, that also the why of the widow part of the name.
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sc-bee, you mentioned black widows under the bottom boards. I have the same problem. I also noticed that its seems to be much more common under sbb than solid. I wonder if they are catching mites shb? what are they eating? They sure stay under those screens alot.
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I get a type of palmetto bug, just under the tetescoping cover, usually one or two, and I kill them off. I hate them suckers.
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I get them real bad under my solid boards and inside stacked stored equipment etc.
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Here's a rather large wolf spider that was in the sink in our cabin in Ms:
(http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/5706/cimg2761ea1.th.jpg) (http://img354.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg2761ea1.jpg)
...JP
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OOhh JP, you should see my fish when I toss a big-un in the tank! They go for the legs & it's usually the smallest diamond tetra that gets the whole spider & then it's keep away from the angels! J
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OOhh JP, you should see my fish when I toss a big-un in the tank! They go for the legs & it's usually the smallest diamond tetra that gets the whole spider & then it's keep away from the angels! J
I would love to see that.
...JP
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It is quite entertaining, we do what we can here in the sticks! The daycare kids would go looking for them & fight over who held the paper towel to toss it in! J