Juliet, I am not that crazy about the spiders in my garden, but I keep reminding myself of all the good they do to keep my garden healthy. Two weeks ago, I caught two brown snakes sneaking around in my garden. Now, I know they can do good too, but yuck! I really don`t want to run into them. Can`t they hide out somewhere? I didn`t go out for a few days, but got over it. Just be careful and aware and try and remember all the good these creatures do for us. Lesley

I welcome all spiders here! LOL...But, my wife doesn't, so, I can understand where your coming from.
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" Am I being a wuss? How do you all enjoy your garden at night without freaking out?"
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I can only suggest 2 things:

1. Face your fears of these night-time creatures.
2. Quit going outside at night...LOL

JIM

OR, find a part of your garden that you can see well from INSIDE.
Then, buy some solar-powered garden lights, and put them out in that section of garden.
They'll come on when it gets dark. Dim the lights inside, and you can enjoy the garden safely.

Jeri

Jeri, that is a brilliant idea! At least for the months of summer or until I see a therapist. :)

I have to admit, jerijen came up with a winner of an idea!

I was thinking, that you could buy those night vision goggles...LOL
But, that might actually make the bugs look bigger and you may look funny wearing them...LOL

Better stick to Jerijens idea!

JIM

If you want to get REAL fancy, wait a couple of months until Christmas decorations
emerge, and buy a couple of strings of LCD Christmas lights.
We did that last year, and strung them around the gazebo that occupies our little patio.
They make just enough light to look charming, and allow DH to BBQ out there.
And they use almost no electricity.
String those around the area-to-be viewed, and you'll have a fairy-land garden.

Jeri

I love the idea of Christmas lights/fairy lights in the garden! I will do that this year. I'm all about fancy. A fairy-land garden? Well, that is what I strive for. Love,love,love it! Thank you, Jeri. :)

Juliet

Here in the northeast we have skeeters that happen to love me---I don't dare to go out at dusk when the garden is beautiful but I would have many bites.

I just don't go outside at night!!

I like the idea of little Christmas lights and just view from inside or the screened porch.

Florence

You are so fortunate that you can go out and not worry about mosquitoes. If I want to go out at night, I have to spray, and I have to use a strong spray to keep the mosquitoes away. Then I have to budget my time, so that instead of changing clothes and going to bed, I have to take a full shower to get rid of the spray.

Do you wear full shoes and socks at night? We have big dogs, so I usually wear sneakers and socks instead of flip flops, and that reduces the fear of a spider biting my feet.

I guess I even hate ants more than spiders since we had an infestation of ants in the house once, and we have many ants outside.

Do you have to sit directly under the roses to enjoy them?

I guess I am not helping much.
Sorry
Sammy

Zeffy, we were writing at the same time.

Sammy

I only dislike the dang black widows. We have those all over the place, but they aren't in the garden so much as around the crap we have all over the yard. My ex-brother-in-law calls one section of our yard Sanford & Sons! My husband has a partial car sitting on a stack of tires, and there's empty pots and leftover car parts and crap all over the garage side of the yard. That's the only place I'd be "afraid" of at night... or even during the day!! But we're in the process of cleaning it all up, so it won't be that way for long!

I like to see the colorful garden spiders. I rarely see any tho. When we lived down the hill yrs ago, I enjoyed seeing the little black & white jumping spiders playing around on my potted roses. I don't have them here. Must get too cold in the winter or something. Nah, I'm not afraid to go out in the evenings.

As for lights, we recently put in a bunch of Malibu lights in the front yard, and in back. When we get done painting and redoing the back porch, I'll be adding more around the side. It's cool to look out and see the lights shining all over the backyard. I had solar lights out front for several yrs, but they wear out and don't really provide enough light to see anything. The Malibu, or low voltage lighting, is so easy to set up and looks so cool out there. There are some really beautiful styles of light fixtures. I found some websites that have these beautiful decorative garden lites shaped like flowers, and mushrooms, and all sorts of just really pretty garden lighting. You might consider adding those instead of solar. They'll last a lot longer.

The one good thing about the black and brown widow is they hide. (Not so much the brown widows.) Neither would bother you purposely. (I doubt you are sticking your hand in dark areas! lol) Right now is spider time! A heck of a lot of them are the same spider right now, what we call "garden spiders". They build their webs at night to catch those moths you are talking about. They build big beautiful webs and it is a treat to watch them build one. They are on a mission and harmless.

Now, snakes at night, no thanks.

Allison

ps. everyone in zone 10 should look up brown widow so you know what it looks like. It is relatively new to our areas. I have one on every rose bush and every where else imaginable. They are not aggressive.

Spiders are not interested in humans. That's how I look at it. If you keep the lights low, the moths stay away. A clear swept patio with nothing on it but the chairs means less critters. I like to sit outside at night but even more, very early in the morning to watch the sun rise. When it is still dark the koi are asleep and it is fun to watch them drift in the current sideways with all their fins spread wide and relaxed. The birds are already starting to sing but there is no other sound. My favorite time of the day. The best part of the day.

The other day I was out working in the garden and my husband noticed a really big spider web. I said I thought it was fantastic and he looked at me like I had two heads! He said aren't you worried about the spider who did that? I guess there's just so much other stuff to think/obsess about daily at that spiders are very low on my list.

I am infinitely more worried about the skunks I occasionally startle exploring my garden early in the morning. I fear it is only a matter of time before one decides to stand and fight the scary human rather than just running away:)

Kate

There's just something about walking through a spider web at head level and not knowing if it is now walking around in your hair....!

Kate, I'm with you about the skunks. Every so often we have a problem with one taking up residence somewhere around the house and our dogs (the indoor variety) get sprayed and it is a nightmare. Fresh skunk spray is absolutely nauseating and does not come off your dog, no matter how many of those anti-skunk spray products you put on it. The smell lingers for weeks and weeks and every time the dog gets wet, the smell is reactivated. And not to even mention the fact that your house smells like skunk forever. So nice for visitors!

Lynn

I want to enjoy my garden at night too but:

My neighbor's porch light, which is on 24/7/365, shines right in my eyes when I'm on my back porch.

Neighborhood cats are out prowling and fighting and screaming at each other, and making my dogs bark, and then someone complains about my dogs barking.

A neighbor is pacing up and down the street in front of my house, talking on his cell phone. Not quietly either.

Another neighbor is yelling at her teenagers.

Another neighbor is working on ATVs in his driveway, which is next to my backyard, with mechanic's drop lights on, and ATV engines revving up and down, over and over, loudly.

Stereos and TVs and barking dogs (not mine).

Streetlights and porchlights blocking out the night sky.

I can't even imagine wanting to light up the garden at night, then you couldn't see the stars at all, and you're blocking them out for your neighbors as well. And who could be bothered by spiders and such when they're sooo quiet??? not like the human neighbors. Please consider your contributions to light pollution before you install garden lighting. Light pollution deprives us of our view of the night sky, which is beautiful, and it's supposed to be dark at night, we need that period of darkness to keep our biological clocks synchronized and our mental health intact.

I like to sit out on the back porch at dusk to listen for owls and to watch the bats and the stars come out. I've managed to squeeze the chaise longe into a space where the neighbor's porch light doesn't shine in my eyes, and I can still see enough of the sky to be worthwhile. There are spiders, and mosquitoes, and rats, and rabbits, and possums, and raccoons, and garter snakes, and moths, and flying termites, but so what.

Reg-----I guess bugs----rabbits----groundhogs and deer are better than inconsiderate neighbors----I agree about looking up at the stars.
I try not to venture out when the skeeters are around---
Florence

"bugs----rabbits----groundhogs and deer are better than inconsiderate neighbors--"

ALTHOUGH at least - hopefully!- inconsiderate neighbors won't eat your roses :)

P.S. I had a neighbor who installed giant lights to light his backyard so his kids could play soccer at night....fortunately the kids aren't playing anymore.

It was entertaining to read how you all deal with your gardens at night. I will try to be braver about the spiders in the garden, but I sure don't want to run into a web like Texaslynn mentioned. I suppose I should count my blessings since spiders at night is better than dealing with mosquitoes, snakes and the other creatures and noisy neighbors written about by you all on this thread. Too many spiders in the garden seems to be it for me. Also, I would never put strong lighting in my garden so as to create the "light Pollution" that Reg_pnw7 has had to deal with. Subtle lighting is more my style and is always more glamourous. :)

So I guess in summer, I'll either move my fave garden chair around so as to avoid being too close to any spider, or stay inside like Florence and Jeri talked about, observing the garden world from a well-dressed window. Perhaps I should enjoy the garden from sunrise, as Hoovb talked about, 'till the start of twilight and be satisfied. Maybe nightime is best served reading garden books and magazines on a luxuriously appointed bed with my silk taffeta Europeon pillow shams and then falling asleep dreaming of roses.

Thanks All,

Juliet

I don't know how big your garden is, but is there any chance of incorporating a small seating area on the edge of your garden? A small area, just large enough for a small table and chair(s)? Even a bench, if it's comfortable, might be nice. I have a small seating area on my porch, which overlooks the garden. I can see the flowers (I love the white petunias) and smell the roses, without "being one" with the night life :)

During the large spider months (usually fall), I keep bamboo stacks near the door. I wave one of them around in front of me to get rid of the spider webs.

When I was about seven, running around Grandma's garden, I ran straight into the web of an apparently enormous garden spider. I saw the spider just before I hit her web and was convinced she had gotten stuck in my (long, curly, brown) hair. I STILL have dreams about finding that spider in my hair. It was 40 years ago!

In real life, though, I'm mainly worried about spiders where I stick my hand into a dark place, like Beth says. I've lived too much of my life in black widow country.

I was interested in the information about Brown Widow spiders. They are harder to recognize at a glance than Black Widows, because they are brown and splotchy, like a lot of other spiders. Black Widows (the females) are not even close to anything else in their range.

The article I found says that their venom is more toxic but they release less of it. It also says they are MORE shy than Black Widows and are found in the same kind of undisturbed, hidden spots -- so they should not be on rose bushes.

Very interesting. I would expect them to continue spreading. I wonder what their winter low temperature tolerance is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Article about Brown Widow Spiders