why do spider webs appear at night, then disappear in the morning?

Question

I'm wondering because around where i live (Northeastern Kansas), Spiderwebs appear out of nowhere at night, and then when I wake up in the morning, I find that many disappear, and then they reappear again the next night, almost in the exact same spots as to where they were the night before. Why is that?

Answer 1

Good answers - just a little addition; when spiders take down a web (because it's damaged or for some other reason), they often eat it to 'recycle' the proteins it's made from. The less new material they have to use for web silk, the more they can use for eggs. There may also be additional benefits - many larger spiders snare tiny flying insects in the web that aren't worth their time and effort to collect, but may be ingested with the web. Similarly, many young spiders spin very small webs that collect few or no insects, but seem to catch wind-blown pollen - that may be a source of food as well when they eat the web. I don't know if anybody has looked into this, but I noticed it 30 years ago and people probably noticed it much farther back than that. By now somebody must have addressed it.

Answer 2

The spiders probably build their webs at night because their food supply is good. Their webs either get blown down by wind, or the spiders could have figured out to take their webs down lest they get knocked down by people during the day. If the spiders put their webs up in the same place, then that means they get a good amount of food there. Spiders build their webs fast if they want to and the webs seem to appear and disappear.

Answer 3

Orb webs are the most common type of web that humans recognize. Generally, we notice them more in the morning as dew collects on the strands. As the day progresses, the dew evaporates and the fine silk will 'disappear'. However, I did find this tidbit...



"Many orb-weavers build a new web each day. Generally, towards evening, the spider will consume the old web, rest for approximately an hour, then spin a new web in the same general location. Thus, the webs of orb-weavers are generally free of the accumulation of detritus common to other species such as black widow spiders."

Answer 4

Many spiders specialise in catching night-flying insects. At dawn they eat the web and lie low during the day. As you have noted, they rebuild the following evening. Not only does this technique clearly provide them with sufficient food but it also avoids birds, many of which relish a nice, plump spider as part of a balanced diet.



Some other spiders tend to be crepuscular, catching their prey in the half-light of dusk or dawn.

Answer 5

the spiders build their webs at night to catch insects that fly around after dark and another reason that they build them at night is so that they are less likley to get dammaged by larger animals.

and in the day some of the webs get destroyed by a varity of things

Answer 6

It may have been torn down by many things. They are easily damaged by large insect and birds, etc.

Spiders can leave their webs but don't tear them down.

Answer 7

because they want to sleep