She's back

[Tom W.]

I was coming onto the back deck after loading some rounds in the shed and I saw on my butterfly bush a huge but half broken spider web. I noticed the thick white squiggly pattern in the middle and knew there was a Garden Spider somewhere. I found her. She seems to be bigger than the one that took up residence last year and was munching down on a bumblebee. I detest spiders, but still have a fascination. Last week I saw a big dead Black Widow by the door to the laundry room.

[Tatume]

Those big black-and-yellow garden spiders (Argiope aurantia) are really neat predators. They will not bite unless captured, so don't pick them up. The bite is painful but not especially dangerous. They are beneficial and eat all kinds of flying insects.

[Mytmousemalibu]

We got some that were absolutely massive where I used to live. Without a shadow of a doubt some would span 3.5 to 4in. The really big ones would make their home right under the big sodium halide highlighter lamp on our shed. As many bugs as it could eat buzzing around that thing at night.

[MaryB]

My garden is loaded with them. Drag a few in on the lettuce I cut and I just let them crawl onto my hand out of the water I am washing the lettuce in and then take them back to the garden and coax them off my hand onto the tomatoes. Great for keeping pests off the tomato plants!

[Went2kck]

I DONT MIND SPIDERS.... Its walking into the web that bothers me.

[popper]

Don"t mind the spiders so much but the asp is terrible.

[Tom W.]

I DON'T MIND SPIDERS.... Its walking into the web that bothers me.

There was a place I hunted years ago where the spiders made webs across the logging roads. Big strong webs, and the spiders were a huge brown fuzzy thing sitting right in the middle. I hated walking into them.

[Tatume]

Those are orb weavers. They eat the old web and build a new one every day. A very pretty display piece can be made by holding a piece of slate against the center of the web, and then spraying it with polyurethane.

[Tripplebeards]

I haven't found one in years. They are awesome creatures.

[Tom W.]

I walked out on the deck just a few minutes ago to see how she fared after the tornado yesterday, and there was another one! And she was full grown, too! The butterflies and bumblebees ain't got a chance now....

[Texas by God]

I taught my children to adopt garden spiders and feed them grasshoppers(remove back legs). They get BIG and it's cool to watch them wrap up their meal......[emoji16]

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[Tom W.]

I went out to look and sit in a chair and I saw a third, but it is tiny compared to the other two. Either young or a male, I'd guess.

[Beagle333]

I don't mind the easy-to-spot garden spiders, but if you want to see somebody throw down their gym bag and lunch pail and do a quick dance, just watch me walk into one of those big juicy brown spider's webs when I'm making my way to the truck at twilight.

[Mytmousemalibu]

I don't mind the easy-to-spot garden spiders, but if you want to see somebody throw down their gym bag and lunch pail and do a quick dance, just watch me walk into one of those big juicy brown spider's webs when I'm making my way to the truck at twilight.

X2 !!! If anyone saw that happen at a distance and saw me jumping out of my skin and my mind.... Well they probably call the nuthouse on me!

[Tom W.]

I think I'm part of the movie "Arachnophobia". I went out on the back deck and saw two more, one a half grown female and the other another small one. They have a tendency to shake their webs every now and again... So as of now it's five and counting. The butterfly carcasses are abundant now......

[mattw]

We always planted a couple of acres of sweetcorn when I was a kid, loaded the planter and all. When it came time to pick it, those spiders where so thick. Each pass down the row and you would have 4 or 5 passengers, some of them were up to 3 inches in IL. My sister would never pick corn because of them and because you might run into a coon in the field.