Thursday, September 21, 2006
SPIDER ALERT!!!
don't scroll down if you are squeamish about spiders
- But can anyone tell me what this is?
The web is around 5 feet across and was built yesterday - I saw it last night for the first time and Tom went onto the porch yesterday morning. I took the "sleeping" photo this morning and the rest were taken a few minutes ago - This thing is frigging scary!
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6 comments:
That is scary!!!! Do you know what kind it is? I think its a austrian maneater spider.
Alex
It looks like a garden spider to me...we mostly don't have poisonous ones here in the northeast and with a web that big, and the large spider, I'd say her main prey are those giant, end of the season flies! The garden spiders make big webs that only last a day or two...sometimes they will rebuild them, and sometimes they are only up in the late afternoon and evening, and then are gone the next day. I've also seen online these spiders identified as and "orb" spider (aka garden spider) due to the large "orb" style web it creates. You have two options...grab a long handled tool and move it away or let it live there and eat big flies!
Good luck to you both! I personally enjoy watching the webs get made, and on those dewy mornings, watching them glisten in the dawning day. And I'm not a spider person, per se!
I agree, we have similiar large spiders around here, same stripy legs and scaaaary looking, ours are more golden/orangey colored, but they aren't at all agressive and are really good at catching the flying bugs. I have never had one pay any attention to me, much less bite me, and they are really common here. I just hate it when I walk into a web unexpectedly! I tend to move them if they are in a bad spot, or ignore them if they aren't, and they leave pretty soon. In fact, I think they are considered "beneficials", and I'd look up correlations for Spider with the timing. I wouldn't harm it, if it makes you nervous, get somebody to move it for you. Hugs, Ysabeau
we have them all over here on Long Island-my Father-in-law used to call them wood spiders and wow are they BIG. It's very hard not to want to make them go away permanently but I guess they eat a lot of bugs so I try not to anger them..(hee)
Looks like a garden spider to me. They *are* ugly but harmless (except to mosquitos and other flying nasties).
I'm not a spider person myself, but dh's comment was "wow, that's gorgeous". Chacun a son gout...
I believe it's a Golden Orb spider, Argiope aurantia. Often their webs look as if they had writing in them.
Really big and scary-looking, but I enjoy seeing them at work in my garden.
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