Spiders and Heights...

[Marty Walsh]

...are two of my least favorite things.

I was just walking out to check on the roofers progress on my shop when I saw this critter sitting in wait on the web it's built behind my spa:

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I'm gonna do a little googling before I go out there and arbitrarily send him/her to arachnid heaven. But if it's poisonous, or has any other evil traits, off it goes!!! :eek:

Yikes...
- Marty -

[Lee DeRaud]

But if it's poisonous, or has any other evil traits, off it goes!!! :eek: What, "big enough to photograph well" isn't an evil trait?!?

[Marty Walsh]

What, "big enough to photograph well" isn't an evil trait?!?

Lee,

Although that's justification, I'm not so heartless as to kill something just to kill it. (Although rattlers and cottom mouths in the yard get dispatched pretty quickly by either Denise or I!)

Upon finding this link (http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm), I've decided this lucky bug will live to see its next birthday (or at least tomorrow). The main reason is that one of its primary food sources are mosquitoes and bees/wasps. I like that!

- Marty -

[Bruce Page]

No expert, and I slept in my own bed last night... but it looks like a harmless garden spider to me.

[Chris Padilla]

Marty,

Even those rattlers and cottom [sic] mouths serve a good purpose and keep mice/rats down.... :) Glad to see you let the spider keep going...most of 'em don't hurt you....

[Mark Rios]

That's the same spider that someone else had across their gate awhile ago.

Are you folks neighbors?:D

You're right. It's just a garden spider. Very good to have around the place.

[Marty Walsh]

Marty,

Even those rattlers and cottom [sic] mouths serve a good purpose and keep mice/rats down.... :) Glad to see you let the spider keep going...most of 'em don't hurt you....

Chris,

Unfortunately for the rattlers and cotton mouths, I'd prefer to deal with the rats/mice myself than to have those venomous slitherers around. Denise was getting up on the tractor a while back, when a rattler slithered out from under it. Denise knew how to deal with...a single shot .410 and there were no more worries...

When the snakes are that close to us, they loose. Sorry...

- Marty -

[Jim Becker]

Don't kill it!! It's a good guy!! Err...gal.

[Lee DeRaud]

Err...gal.You can tell that from the top side? :D

[John Kain]

Marty,

Even those rattlers and cottom [sic] mouths serve a good purpose and keep mice/rats down.... :) Glad to see you let the spider keep going...most of 'em don't hurt you....

The timber rattlers, pigmy rattlers, cottonmouths, and copperheads by my house get transplanted down by the creek. They serve to keep my house clear of rodents and the like.

By the way, I live in the Cottonmouth capital of the USA (according to the nature channel).

[Rick Le Douche]

spiders don't bother me...

snakes don't bother me...

but clowns !!!

aaaaaaaarrrgh !

:eek:

[Jim Becker]

You can tell that from the top side?
Size. The males are quite small...and "she" likely eats them after they do their duty...kinda a one-shot existence, if you will. (Or like having children...)

http://enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?source=&parkid=&searchText=&allSpecies=&shapeID=1022&lshapeID=0&curAbbr=&lastView=default&lastGroup=4&lastRegion=&lastFilter=4&lastShapeName=&trackType=&curRegionID=&size=&habitat=&fruit=&color=&sortBy=family&curFamilyID=&regionSelect=All+regions&regionZIP=&curGroupID=4&lgfromWhere=&curPageNum=11

BTW, this variety can get very large in size...I had one almost 2" across two years ago outside of my shop.

[Ken Garlock]

Marty, what you have is an Argiope aurantia, or a common black and yellow garden spider. We had about 4 or 5 webs of them last year. They are fun to watch. As the they get older, the female, which is what you have, will weave an egg sack before she then dies. Get yourself a small grasshopper and put it in the web. The old girl will have it wrapped in silk in under 10 seconds. I am not a spider fan, but these are harmless and as Jim said, good for the environment. Check the web early in the morning, it might have a coating of dew on it and you can see the extent of her work.

Argiope is pronounced as if you said the following letters in quick sequence: R.G.O.P.

[Lee DeRaud]

Argiope is pronounced as if you said the following letters in quick sequence: R.G.O.P.I ink I ust ained i ongue.:D

[Norman Hitt]

Marty, my sentiments about Rattlers, cotton mouths and copperheads are EXACTLY the same as yours, ( I do leave prairie racers, bull snakes etc alone, since they are non poisonous and eat rodents, that is unless they get too thick and are eating the quail eggs,:D ), and I'm not real fond of spiders either. I usually leave most spiders alone though, except the brown recluse and black widows, if they aren't really in the way.

The first, (and only) spiders like you show, that I ever saw was at my daughters house in Denton, Tx a few yrs back when I was doing some remodeling there. They ended up with 4 webs on their long Ranch type porch and were extremely large. The two largest, had bodies nearly 3" long and really covered a large area on the web with their legs. I was kinda fascinated by the heavy zig-zag pattern they would spin back & forth across the middle of their web, and they really caught a lot of mosquitos and bugs and never bothered anyone. The colors were a really bright yellow and black with some white, and really caught your attention. I've never seen them anywhere else and have always wondered if they were common in some other places.

[Al Willits]

"""""""""
Although that's justification, I'm not so heartless as to kill something just to kill it. (Although rattlers and cottom mouths in the yard get dispatched pretty quickly by either Denise or I!)
"""""""

I just KNEW there was a reason I live'd in Minnesota and put up with winter 17 months a year....thanks....:D

Al....who'll never complain about moskitoes again...well, not for awhile anyway..

[Lee DeRaud]

I like to think I'm helping spiders evolve:
I only kill the ones stupid enough to put a web where I can walk into it.:cool:

[Marty Walsh]

"She" is still there, and that web is pretty full of dead little bugs. So "she" is doing "her" job quite well. I plan to leave "her" alone...that is until I open the spa, which I haven't done since I found "her" there. Unfortunately for "her", she's positioned in such a way that the spa cover will make a direct hit to "her" and "her" web upon opening. Hopefully "she" won't be harmed and can find a safer place to set up house and continue eating all our pesky little bugs.

(I put all the gender refrences above in quotes, since I find it odd, with my disdain for spiders, to be referring to "her" in such a way! :confused: )

- Marty -

[Chip Charnley]

Don't have much problems with snakes here in SE Michigan. Don't even see a lot of spiders despite living in a hardwood forest up a hill from several acres of wetlands. The spiders I generally do see are wolf spiders in the house and I love them. One of their favorite prey is cockroaches which makes wolf spiders high on my list of favorite insects. Especially since they don't spin webs. On the other hand, I have seen one jump about 8 feet off a wall to land on a cockroach :eek: (several houses ago though). Quite impressive although it can give you a start.

[Dan Oelke]

"""""""""

I just KNEW there was a reason I live'd in Minnesota and put up with winter 17 months a year....thanks....:D


Sorry to burst your bubble, but I had 3 or 4 of those garden spiders under our deck just a week ago. They do a number on anything that lands in their web and weave the biggest nicest looking orb webs around.

And if you are around bluffs - there are some rattlers around here too.....

No black widows or brown recluse this far north that I know of so you are safe there.

[Gary Herrmann]

My wife just pointed out one of those in our garden today. Must be a female, because the body of these beastie looked like it was about 2 inches long.

Funny coincidence.