Yellow Garden Spider

What it does

The yellow garden spider sits head-down in the center of a large vertical orb web, often adding a bold zigzag of white silk called a stabilimentum. It waits for prey, wraps it in silk, and rebuilds the web's center nightly. It is not aggressive and will drop from the web or hide if threatened rather than approach people.

Where it lives

This native spider favors sunny, sheltered spots with tall plants: gardens, meadows, field edges, and the eaves of homes, sheds, and porches. It anchors its web among vegetation, fences, and structures out of the wind. It is found across the continental US, from backyards to farms.

How it breeds

There is one generation a year. In late summer the female produces one or more round, papery brown egg sacs holding up to a thousand eggs, attaching them near the web. Adults die in fall, and the spiderlings overwinter inside the sac, emerging in spring to disperse and grow through summer.

What it eats

Yellow garden spiders are beneficial predators that eat flying and jumping insects snared in the web, including flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, aphids, and wasps. By trapping garden pests, they help with natural insect control and take nothing from plants.

Identification

Females are large and showy: a shiny black body marked with bright yellow or orange, silvery hairs on the head region, and long legs banded black and yellow. Males are much smaller and plainer. The signature clue is the heavy zigzag silk stripe running down the center of the web.

Signs of an infestation

• A large orb web with a white zigzag band in the garden
• A big black-and-yellow spider hanging head-down
• Papery brown, round egg sacs near the web in fall
• Webs rebuilt in the same sheltered spot each night
• Wrapped insect prey stored in the web

Prevention tips

• Clear webs with a broom only where they block doorways or paths
• Trim back dense vegetation against the house if webs are unwanted
• Reduce outdoor lighting that attracts the insects they hunt
• Relocate rather than kill this beneficial garden spider
• Leave webs in the garden, where the spider controls pests

Professional solutions

Yellow garden spiders do not warrant professional pest control; they are harmless and helpful. If one has built a web across a frequently used door, simply relocate it or remove that web. Broad spraying is unnecessary and kills a beneficial predator. Reducing the insects it feeds on will naturally lower how often it settles nearby.