spiders

Well, I have already posted about spiders once recently. But I do love them so. Spider season is a fun time and it is in full swing now with the spiders getting bigger and bigger. I counted at least 7 different spiders and 5 different species making webs in just one window of my home. I love spiders and we co-habitate well together. I have been running into more and more webs that are suspended further and further out from tree branches and rose bushes and plants and in the car window and suspended from the roof and seemingly in mid-air. The other day I walked into three giant spider webs complete with spiders. They don't want to be on my head any more than I want them there and it is a mad scramble for both of us. And these are big spiders too, the larger banded garden spiders and they are getting bigger by the day. Then, if that weren't enough for one day, I put on my jeans that I had drying out on the clothesline and there was a spider, complete with web, inside one of the legs. I guess this is why I haven't found very many ear wigs lately.

The kids and I have also been going again out at night with a flashlight to check out the spiders. This is a great time to see them. They are out in all their glory, often catching several insects. We keep track of the biggest spiders and check on them periodically. There are two right now in the front that are vying for largest-spider-in-the-yard-status, otherwise known as the big-ladies. I like to find their hiding places as well. Usually you can trace one of the web lines to a leaf or flower or some small hiding place and if the spider is not in the center of her web, she can be found hiding behind the leaf, etc.

For those who haven't seen the link about the giant spider web in Texas... What fun to think of those spiders weaving those webs together.

And here is an interesting biology blog...