Cranberry Spiders: The Silent Guardians of America’s

While you may enjoying the tart cranberry sauce at your Thanks giving dinner, most probably you do not even realize the tiny eight-leg heroes that are involved in the process of protecting your favorite fruit without any effort. Cranberry spiders play a very important role in the feeding of cranberry crops all over America by acting as nature’s pest control system in the cranberry bogs from Massachusetts to Oregon.

Cranberry spiders are not just the very small and creepy creatures that are always there in the wetlands, but they are the most important partners in sustainable agriculture. Such very efficient arachnids have changed to fit perfectly with the bog environment, where they hunt the harmful insects that can be very dangerous to the cranberry harvest. Getting to know these interesting creatures makes us understand how complex the ecosystem that provides us with cranberries is.

Top 5 Interesting Facts About Cranberry Field Spiders

Master Survivors During Harvest Season

Cranberry field spiders demonstrate great survival techniques when water floods to collect the cranberry bogs. They can avoid getting wet by using the surface tension of water due to these hairs. Note: The bodies of spiders are cover by tiny hairsas call setae, which keep them dry and permit them to step onto water. Thus, when walking through the flooded bogs, the spiders tend to make their way onto the bodies of human beings and thus have a different route (rather than water) to travel and have a strange alliance with human harvesters and spider survivors.

Natural Pesticide Alternatives

Spiders in the cranberries consume a total of 2000 insects in a year, which makes them super-efficient biotic pest controllers. Their main course consists of cranberry fruitworms, aphids, leafhoppers, beetles, and other harmful insects that destroy crops. Such predation by nature thus ensures the reduction in the use of chemical pesticides, which gives support to the organic farming practice.

Specialized Bog Hunters

Most of the cranberry field spiders are not the web-spinning type but are instead the ones who actively hunt their prey, that they chase begging the bog surface. Besides that, their light bodies allow them to glide swiftly on both the water and the dry sandy soil of the cranberry bogs – a peculiar feat unmatched by other terrestrial predators.

Penny-Sized Protectors

Upon closer inspection of cranberry spiders, you will find them to be very tiny; usually, they are the size of a penny. As a result of their presence, pest control is successfully and ecologically done, and bogs are the perfect example of this.

Multi-Generational Bog Residents

A population of Massachusetts cranberry field spiders has become the most permanent of all the residents of North American cranberry bogs. They especially do very well in the acid soils of the northern United States and Canada. For instance, one of the species, namely wolf spiders, not only carry their young on their backs but also are their next generation of protectors of cranberry crops.

What Are Cranberry Field Wolf Spiders?

Cranberry field spiders are equally comprise of wolf spiders (Family Lycosidae) that are the most prevalent type of arachnid in the cranberry bogs. They are powerful hunters that sit between 0.4 and 1.4 inches in shade and said to have good eyesight and strong legs.

Cranberry field Wolf spiders got their name from the fact that they hunt in the same way wolves do – they sneak up and chase prey without making webs. These cranberry spiders live on the ground and are brown or gray, which makes them fit perfectly into bog environments. Their eight eyes are arranged in three rows, with two big ones located front and center so they get the best vision while hunting.

Mature female wolf spiders are normally larger than males, and they take care of their egg sacs by tying them to their spinnerets until the eggs hatch. After the hatch, the spiderlings cling to their mother’s back for protection – this is a very common sight in cranberry bogs during breeding seasons.

Get Rid of Spiders: Quick Control Tips

Though cranberry field spiders are good guys in agricultural settings, homeowners might desire to have a spider population under their control indoors. To get rid of spider, follow these rules:

1. Essential Oil Repellents: Put some peppermint, lavender or tea tree oil in a spray bottle of water. Apply in and around entry points and corners.
2. Be Clean: Cleaning by vacuum regularly and de-cluttering would help to remove hiding places and food attraction, which would attract the spiders and their prey.
3. Seal Entry Points: Fill gaps around the windows, doors, and cracks on the foundation blocks that are entry points for the spiders using caulking.
4. Plants: Plants that can be used as natural repellents are lavender, mint, eucalyptus, and citronella, as these plants will not only keep the spiders away but also keep other insect species at bay.
5. Salt Solution Spray: Saltwater spray is a natural spider repellent that is effective on spiders. Mix four tablespoons of plain salt with one cup of water, and spray it on the spiders will kill them because the salt will dehydrate them.
6. Remove Outdoor Attractants: Reduce the number of outdoor lights where it is not needed, and keep the garden clean to prevent the overgrowth of insect populations, which will consequently prevent the attraction of spiders.

Conclusion

The cranberry field spider is the most typical picture of how nature’s balanced ecosystem functions. These incredible arachnids are not only the life-savers of the American cranberry harvest, but they also demonstrate their abilities to adapt perfectly to the wetland environment. Besides their amazing and efficient survival tactics during the flood and their pest control services, cranberry spiders are the ones that show that the food production system can not do without the participation of even the tiniest creatures.

Recognizing and valuing these bog-dwelling predators, we realize the significance of sustainable agricultural methods, which are in harmony with nature and not against it. Next time if you take cranberry products, do not forget about those tiny guardians that are laboring invisibly behind the scenes to make your meal possible.

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