This has been a trying time – between COVID lockdown and the mercurial weather. I find myself having to struggle to even get into my garden regularly. A while ago I noticed spider webs, but there were only a few and I talked myself into believing that they were slow-moving and would self-limit and they weren't so bad to look at anyway. Wrong!
Then the weather threw me a curve. We woke up at 8:30 once morning to find the sky orange; the sun never seemed to have risen. My wife and I stood outside to see an orange night-time sky. Where was the day? This was very disorienting. To add to the confusion, all surfaces both inside and outside the house were covered with a patina of ash. There was something so confusing that I felt like I wanted to just look at all my plants just to find something familiar. The first thing I noticed was they were also covered with a fine patina of ash. The green foliage was ashen.
As I looked closely I also noticed spider webs. They had an eerie beauty to them and the ash covering made them stand out even more. And there were lots and lots of them. They were like mini-space ships invading the garden and landing on all the plants. How could I have neglected this for so long, I asked myself. They just stood out more with the flecks of ash all over them. After recovering from my guilt and surprise, I asked myself the question of what should I do. Insecticides seemed like overkill, and I landed on neem oil.
I went spraying all the webs until they either collapsed or really looked like space ships – covered with the white webbing and spray droplets. The immediate positive feedback I got was seeing spiders scurrying around in a panic. Right now, I am satisfied that I did the right thing. (Any other ideas about what to do?) As with the development of a corona vaccine, this experiment does not reach scientific certainty, but I should know before long if I have sent the main space critters on the way back home. More to follow.