Spider infestation

Now, normally I have no problems with spiders. I am well aware of all the benefits, and the fact that most all of them are completly harmless. The problem I am having though..well...let me expain.

I just bought a house and I am being overrun.

I have an orb weaver infestation. Almost half my front yard is covered in webs. the front is mostly low growing ground covers/ cactus/shrubby stuff, so it never gets mowed, which is the only reason the entire yard isn't covered by now. The current "hive" as I am calling it, spans about 20x10 feet, and consists of close to 40-50 invididual webs. I have confirmed these are active spider webs, mostly by throwing small bugs into them and seeing what happens. It started as a few small ones, spread to what it is now, and is spreading over the rest of the yard, the side of the house, and the backyard. There are most likely 100 other webs spread out over the front and who knows how many in the back. Most of the yard is pretty well maintained by the previous owner, and about half the yard is grass. Webs are fine, but honestly, these are pretty ugly and more of my yard/plants are webbed now than are not.

Is this normal behavior for garden spiders? I grew up in Texas, so I am having to learn all the new wildlife around Colorado. My guess is there was a hatching or twelve, and they just walked a foot or two and setup camp.

Most importantly, does anyone know of a way to discourage them? I am treating eradication as a last resort. I could go out and sweep the plants I suppose, but I don't know if this will have any effect other than making them rebuild. Do they migrate if they are constantly bothered? Should I just wait for winter to kill them off?

Thanks for any help you can provide. I promise pictures once I get to unpacking the rest of our stuff and find the cord for my camera!

Ok, guess I'll just try and find some sort of bug killer. Tried sweeping them and most were back within two days.

Went to my strawberry bed, 3'x8'. There were 35 different webs on it, each about a foot wide. They are taking over the backyard too now.

I have the same problem at my house. I normally have no problem with spiders, and usually love them around to help with the pest bugs, but my yard is infested in the summertime. Early spring is usually okay, but then it hits, and hits hard! I leave for the day, and come home every day and walk through numerous huge webs just to get to my house. I can't even plant a garden anymore, because the webs are everywhere!!

Have you figured anything out?

Any advice would be great. I hate pesticides or killing things, but I also hate being barricaded inside for the summer as well

Help!

You need some hummingbirds. They eat spiders and they use the webs to make their nests.

They need something bigger than hummers! The hummers will eat tiny spiders, and use the webs for nest building, but can also get caught in large webs.