With Halloween a couple of weeks away, wildlife experts throughout the country want the general public to know there’s a decoration that might pose hazards for birds, bugs and other animals when it’s arrange outside.
In Nebraska, officials with the Nebraska Wildlife Education group are warning residents that fake spider webs can entangle hummingbirds, owls, butterflies, bees and small critters.
“Often, the creatures moving through the bushes or trees decorated with this material can get caught, leading to the animals dying of injury, starvation or predation unless they’re rescued and rehabilitated,” Amber Schiltz, interim division administrator of the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission’s (NGPC) Fish & Wildlife Education Division, wrote in an email to Fox News Digital.
Synthetic spider web decorations are made with plastic-based materials that aren’t biodegradable, which could pose a threat to wildlife if winds blow the fake webbing to other areas, in accordance with Schiltz.
She noted that fake spider webs also don’t break as easily as real spider webs.
“These spider web decorations trap creatures by entangling their wings and limbs,” Schiltz wrote.
Halloween celebrants typically hang fake spider webs on the outside of their homes or landscaping each fall.
Animal care experts with the Nebraska Wildlife Rehab in Omaha have observed juvenile squirrels getting entangled in fake spider webs when parent squirrels use the ornamental material in burrows for winter nesting, in accordance with Schiltz.
In recent times, wildlife rehab centers throughout the country have seen an increased variety of entangled animals and insects, including warblers, hummingbirds, screech owls, dragonflies and butterflies, in accordance with Schiltz.
The life-threatening entanglements are happening since the Halloween-decorating season “overlaps with key migration periods,” which affects creatures who “depend on urban areas as a part of their habitat,” she explained.
Statistics on what number of animals and insects are trapped in fake spider webs aren’t available, but wildlife experts and environmental watchdogs have also made announcements concerning the dangers the decorations pose to small wildlife.
Those that run the Facebook page Help Save Our Hummingbirds HSOH, which has 56,000 followers, issued a warning Sept. 2.
“Halloween is fast approaching. Please be mindful on the way you decorate outside,” the group wrote.
“The fake webbing is horribly dangerous for wildlife. Fake spiderweb decorations kill birds. It’s strong enough to snare an owl and takes a terrible toll every October on small birds,” the post added.
“They get twisted up in it and can’t get out, subsequently resulting in a slow, agonizing death … In warmer climates, flowers should still be blooming, and bees are still out, the fake webbing might be deadly to them too, in addition to butterflies and still migrating hummingbirds.”
WildCare, a nonprofit organization and wildlife hospital in San Rafael, California, reports that it treats dozens of animal patients for entanglement injuries, in accordance with an article the group published, “Keep Halloween Protected for Wildlife.”
The wildlife hospital urges home decorators to refrain from using fake spider webs or placing garden netting or webbing in yards to avoid entanglement risks.
If fake webs or nets are already set, WildCare suggests home decorators check their webbing or netting twice a day for trapped animals.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Veterinary Medicine — Wildlife Medical Clinic also advises Halloween decorators to ditch fake spider webs, in accordance with the varsity’s “Wildlife Friendly Halloween Decorations” from 2020.
Halloween spider web decor: What to do as a substitute?
Some Halloween decorators may find it difficult to let go of their spooky home furnishings.
Schiltz told Fox News Digital there are three options decorators can consider in the event that they wish to practice wildlife-friendly decorating.
1. Place fake webs indoors
Halloween decorators who feel they’ll’t part with their fake spider webs can safely place them inside their home, including their interior front windows.
2. Replace fake webs with other decorations
Decorators can consider thicker rope-like decorations and similar ornaments that don’t entangle birds, small mammals and insects.
3. Let spiders construct real webs
If spiders are around, decorators can let the insects construct their very own webs, which provide natural pest control and a “spooky” ambiance, in accordance with Schiltz.
“As someone who loves Halloween almost as much as I like animals, my suggestion can be [to find] a balance [between] the materials we’re putting out for decorations and remembering our nature neighbors we’re fortunate to share our space with,” she wrote.
