Cedar Point Spiders

Uh, Cedar Point does not have a "problem." The park is not in a dome, it's outside. Spiders live outside, and as with any other location in Northern Ohio, spiders tend to be more obvious at certain times during the season.

Cedar Point does not have a spider problem. (TM)

;)

While on my past visit to Cedar Point, I did notice that unusual amounts of spiders were hanging in the ride queues and inside the stations. In Wicked Twisters station, there were dozens of webs with spiders in them all throughout the roof.

As much as spiders bother me, these did not make me squirm or be uncomfortable like they usually might.

Also, it makes sense for so many spiders to be at the point for the whole abundance of mayflies. Spiders obviously know that the area makes for great feeding grounds.

What spiders? I worked there for 2 seasons (6 months each time) and even lived in the dorms on point (it's like an indoor campground, lol)and never noticed a problem with spiders. I cleaned a few webs from rides each day, but I am sure that if you went outside you own home you would find webs durring spring/summer/fall.

I never noticed anything unusuial about the spiders.

I admit that I'm not too scared of spiders---so maybe I've never looked real hard. However, I grew up in Ohio! I've probably been to CP some 100 times in my life. I do not recall EVER seeing a spider. Now I'm sure they are there, and I'm sure I missed them. However, I find it hard to believe that there is this severe problem some of you seem to be talking about!?

Working nights at the park last summer, I was able to see my fair share of spiders and their webs. At the beginning of the summer they were rather small and harmless. But as the weeks passed by they seemed to grow larger and larger. By the time I left at the end of August it was pretty common to see quite a few each night with bodies the size of a quater.

I wouldn't say they were really a problem at all, though. I may have had to deal with a lot of webs while crawling around the rides, but there shouldn't have been much discomfort at all for the average guest who visited the park and/or stayed on Point.

The times I've noticed the spiders the most is late in the summer, and especially Halloweekends. If you want to see more huge spiders and webs than you ever thought you would outside of an Indiana Jones movie, then just look down the wall of Wicked Twister's engine house (I'm assuming that's what it is) at the front of the station. Unbelievable! And they are so huge!

I think the reason they are so prolific there, is due to WT's location on the water. The wall that faces the water is where they are camped out like a Woodstock concert. You will often find spiders building webs next to water, due to the amount of flies and other tasty insects that buzz around the water. If you live in or ever go to apartments that have a side that faces a pond, look at night on that side of the apartments, and the spiders will be all over the place. I know this from personal experience, as my old apartment had a lovely view of the pond and fountain. But come nighttime, I didn't dare go out there, as it was overrun with the eight legged freaks.

I have also seen them en masse at Mantis as well ( which, if you think about it, is not a great place for a spider to hang out ;) ) ,which is also right on the water. That's why there are also many there.

Actually, far more scarier than those spiders, which are big, and have huge webs, are the Black Widow Spiders I have seen there on two occasions. That's right, Black Widow spiders! Both times they were in queue lines, hanging upside down on their webs from the middle of the shade awnings. The first time was 2002, and it was in the Millennium Force queue, and last year I saw another Black Widow in the Wicked Twister queue. Needless to say, I didn't stand underneath those spiders very long! I always look now when I'm in the queue lines especially in the evening. Getting bit by one of those things would be an awful way to end a great day at CP! :(

I agree with Jeff, it's not like it's CP's problem. Any time you are outside around a lake or what not there are going to be a great deal of spiders and insect life. Next time in line for BKF at SFWoA look up in the little black canopy. It is packed with spiders. You can see them on other rides too, and believe it or not I've seen spiders at other parks!!1!1

I have arachnaphobia really bad. I am absolutely terrified by spiders and that's probably why I noticed them everywhere at CP. The ride-ops do do a good job of cleaning the queues and rides of webs and whatnot in the morning, but I notice them more and more as the day wears on. I can't tell you how many webs we've walked through at the campground. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. I should've never read this thread, I'm going to have nightmares tonight about spiders now. Ugh!

Im not really afraid of spiders, but it was pretty disgusting when I was at the park at the end of July. It was a hot day and there were spiders EVERYWHERE. Frankly, I think they should not only destroy all the spiders, but kill all the other annoying flying insects too! Its bugicide! Kill them all!!! They should have squads in suits go in and just murder the place, put spider and insect killers EVERYWHERE for like a month and completely Kill everything!!!!

The most annoying thing at Cedar Point to me isn't an insect at all. It's the snowfall of cottonwood. It didn't exactly take me long to figure out I'm allergic to it.

I'm like loriu, a real bad arachnaphobic. Sadly, hearing all these spider stories is making me doubt my plans on going next summer. I know I souldn't think that, but I'll probally end up going. To the people that have seen them, what time during the season are they the least bad?

Millenium Force29, I'll help you kill 'em!

Wow, I surprised that so many people have a serious fear of spiders. That's crazy.

For the record I've never noticed an abundance of spiders at CP. I don't think I've ever seen one - except for that one that kept showing up on the webcam.

I wasn't saying they are a problem to guests or really to the park. They're not invading the park and they're not really a pest. What I'm saying is that the Point seems to have more than their fair share of them, and they grow to be enormous.

They do help out with cleaning up the mayflies and muffleheads (more of a real problem), but at the same time, I hated walking into them everywhere in the mornings. So for me (an arachnophobe) they were a quite a bother.

---

SteelMonsters said:
The most annoying thing at Cedar Point to me isn't an insect at all. It's the snowfall of cottonwood. It didn't exactly take me long to figure out I'm allergic to it.

---

Wrong! You're not allergic to cottonwood. That's a scientific fact. The stuff is too large to be inhaled.

Now other stuff that happens to pollenate at exactly the same time, that's what causes your reaction.

A good place to go spider-watching is in the final part of Mean Streak's queue, where it goes under the brake run. In the fall, at night, you'll see a decent number of the little 8-legged pest control team. It seems like that time of year Cedar Point leaves the webs there for natural Halloween theming or something...

Depending on the lifecycles of local spiders, there might well be some kind of "spider invasion" in late summer, when the tiny spiders hatch and go populate the world by having themselves carried accorss the countryside on long thin spider fathoms.
So, depending on when they arrive and fostered by the presence of food (bugs hovering around lake erie) and absence of natural enemies (birds) there might be a large spider population in fall, that is most likely going to mostly die off during freezing winter - or by starving to death after eating all the bugs so none are left to re-populate the area.
Remember - spiders are also a good thing as they eat the bugs that you might have to eat otherwise when riding MF! :o)

I am just as afraid of spiders as Lori - When I was young, my mom caught me playing with a black widow, and ever since I found out how dangerous thet was, I developed a HUGE fear, knowing that I could have been bitten by such a hideous creature.

What odd is that I love looking at pictures of black widows and other weird spiders, just to creep myself out - it's like watching a horror movie (of which I'm a huge fan, too....)

I always notice the spiders in the trash cans and weird places like that at the point. I never seem to let the other ones bother me, in fact, I dont even go looking for them. Now that someone mentioned all the places they hang out, I'ma little weirded out, and the Black Widows in MF's shades kinda bothers me. Will it stop me from going to the point? nah. Just like the taller rides got me used to heights, being around spiders can only make me more used to them, so I won't be as creeped out.

Still, I don't trust anything with more legs than my dog....

Josh

I saw a single spider in his/her web that was built by the Milly queue where you wait for the front seat. It was built in an opening toward the track where it comes ripping by the station. Every time the coaster would go by, the web would shake really hard. I think the spider was a coaster enthusiast!! It gave some other people and me something to watch while waiting.

So how bad are the MuffleHeads and Mayflies in say late June? Is it bad enough that you should wear shades when you ride the coasters? Or does it mainly get bad at night? I hate bugs! Any and every bug! UGH! (shivers) I can take some, but I don't like them on me or hitting me in the face!