Fall Traditions

Pumpkins, spiders and bats...oh my

Sheet webs on a coast live oak. Photo by Dean Thompson

I love Fall, especially on the Central Coast of California. The persistent summer fog has finally given way to clear, warm days and cool nights. The sun has dropped just a little more southward to create a longer golden hour before sunset. The sound of soccer and football games on the weekends, the ripe squash, and apples at the farmers’ markets. Bats flying on clear dusk evenings feeding on termite hatches and morning drops of dew illuminated on gossamer threads of spider webs. They all add to the anticipation of shorter days, rain, sweaters, family gatherings, and…the holidays. But before we get to the blitz of the holiday season let’s enjoy Fall, because after Halloween, Thanksgiving is just a speed bump on the way to the frenzy of the winter holidays.

I particularly like Halloween decorations like pumpkins, bats, and spiders, not because I think they’re creepy but because this is their season. Pumpkin vines growing all summer long have finally produced their orange globes to be turned into pies, muffins, cookies, yogurt, smoothies, lattes, and of course jack-o-lanterns.

Another Fall tradition that’s not so great for homeowners are termite swarms. This time of year, termites swarm out of downed trees or old buildings, where they spent the year building up their colonies. Just after sunset on warm fall evenings, you’ll see the reproductive hopefuls rise into the air for their nuptial flight on their four fluttering wings seeking new digs. But, if we keep paying attention, soon to follow will be bats, diving and twisting on their delicate webbed fingers in the faint dusk light to catch those potential queens and kings. The bats gorge on this feast which will fuel some of them on their migration or build fat reserves to make it through the lean times of an insect-less winter.

They aren’t the only ones who feast on the termites. Spiders who have been growing larger all summer have reached their full size by autumn and their orb webs can stretch across trails and garden paths to catch the termites or even an unwary jogger on their morning trail run. The variety and complexity of spider webs visible during the fall are endless. Sometimes using up to 7 different kinds of silk, spiders will make orbs, sheets, mesh, triangles, funnels, and just plain cobwebs all serving the purpose of either providing a home, transportation, protection for their young, or a means to trap prey. 

At my house, I love my spider webs, they make perfect fall decorations, and they’re functional as well! It gives me great pleasure to go out and see termite wings caught in the webs and fat happy spiders sitting in their hiding spots where hopefully birds won’t find them.

Enjoy the fall everyone because in a month or two the pumpkins will be eaten, the webs blown away, and their creators passed on. By then we will be looking forward to the rains to help start the cycle again.