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Francis Barnswallow
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Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

Hundreds of tiny orange/tan spiders on tomato plant

While I was contemplating ripping out 30 adult tomato plants because this month was brutal (borderline disgusting) when it came to caterpillars, I looked closely at my a section of the garden and noticed hundreds of BB-size orange spiders in a small web.

I know they're baby spiders. And it's not those really tiny red spiders you might see crawling around. I can't take a pic and I tried googling but didn't find any pictures that looked like these little guys.

Like I said, I'm about to rip out this garden because of the exceptional amount of damage caterpillars did this year......and these tomatoes where my first attempt at starting plants from seed. :cry:

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Kisal
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

Real spiders, even poisonous ones, are garden helpers, because they eat other insects. I would leave them alone. You have the brown recluse spider in your area, so learn what those look like. You'll definitely want to avoid being bitten by them. Wear gloves when you work in and around your garden. :)

[url=https://www.wildclassroom.net/resources/spiders.html]This[/url] looks like a fairly good site about Florida spiders. :)

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soil
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Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

I'm going to say baby orb weaver spiders.

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Francis Barnswallow
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Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:28 pm
Location: Orlando

awe jeez, these look like baby southern black widows. The baby orb weavers have the dark spot their backs, my little guys don't.

I know this site says these spiders are in Utah but...

https://healthyhomegardening.com/Creature.php?pid=225

......that is exactly what they look like. And I'm freaked out by spiders of all kinds. :shock:

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Count their legs if they have 8 legs they are spiders. Spiders are a gardners friend.

Brown Recluse spiders and Black Widows spiders like to hide in dark places you will not find them in your garden.

TN is infested with Brown Recluse spiders and Black Widows spiders I never find them in my garden unless I leave something in the garden like a bucket or empty can. If I leave a bucket setting in the garden for a few days it very often will have a Black Widow spicer hiding under the bottom. They like to hide in dark places like inside an empty can.

Here is a link to common garden spiders. https://coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/spiders.htm



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