Fall Spiders!

  Fall has just got to be right around the corner if for no other reason than I am ready.  Down here in the Deep South, we don't "get" fall like everyone else so we "make" fall.  Wishful thinking can do amazing things!  As soon as August ends and September rolls in, we immediately "fall" everything! Decorations are put up, spices are hauled out and, oh my, the leaves start to change colors!  No, wait.  That is not here.  We have leaf color only it is green.  That green usually hangs around until about January but our wishful thinking doesn't mind.  It is fall.

  Today, I found another giant orb weaver spider.  A huge, palm-sized beauty had strung her web between the groundsel bush and a pier post.  This was yet another black and yellow garden spider like the shed door guardian.  I love these gigantic spiders simply because, while they appear intimidating, they are rather docile.  I also love them because they are harbingers of fall!  Yep, Pop always said that finding these spiders and the huge webs meant that fall was right around the corner.  Pop was smart with the ways of nature so I am grasping to his bit of wisdom here.  My spiders herald fall.

  As I was sitting admiring the beauty of the latest spider find, I pondered if Pop was on to something. The best thing I could do was look up about the critters.  Sure enough, it seems that the spiders stay hidden until they are ready to mate and lay eggs.  The female spins her large web and waits for a suitable husband to wander by.  After his visit, she usually eats him for dinner and the proceeds with weaving a lovely cocoon for her eggs.  This golden orb will house her babies until the next spring.  Fall is the egg-laying time for the orb weaver spiders.  Ahh, good to know!

  So, Pop was right once again.  The "Fall" spiders are coming into view so all is right with the world.  Those of us that have been fall ready for the past few months are happy to know that "our" time is nigh!  Happy Fall, y'all!  Let me go check for fall colors...yep!  The Fall Spiders are here with all of their beautiful hues!

Where Did They Go??

  For years and years, it seems as if every tree had a huge spiderweb dangling in it.  The "banana" spiders (as they are locally called) reigned in the bug world.  Their 5ft webs spanned between trees and caught just about every bug in the neighborhood.  We marveled at our eight-legged friends and their ability to survive against all odds.  The spiders survived storms, birds flying through their webs and hard freezes.  These spiders, the Golden Silk Orb Weavers or Giant Woods Spiders, are well worth "spider-watching"!

  Here lately, however, I am lucky to find five or six of the spiders each summer.  They seem to be on the decline in the area around the Bayou.  Perhaps our clearing the yard of more and more underbrush has encouraged the spiders to move elsewhere, although, our interaction with the spiders never seemed to bother them before.  So far this year, I have found three active webs.  One was in the marsh, another in the old oak tree and the third was in the bed of my old pickup truck.  Sadly, I know what happened to the truck-dwelling spider.  The vehicle was needed so Ms. Charlotte Spider had to be evicted.  I gently tried to help her move to the mulberry tree next to the truck but that did not seem to be to her liking.  Although she stayed in the tree for three days, her web cannot be found now.  I am thinking that high tide dislocated the marsh-dwelling spider.  Hopefully, she survived the flooding and was able to move her egg sacs with her.  As for the oak tree web, I just found it this morning.  The normally pristine web was bedraggled and the spider, herself, has seen better days.  She is missing several legs but had still managed to capture a nice sized bug of some sort.  Hopefully, she will have the strength to spin her egg sacs and lay many eggs. We need these spiders!

 Perhaps I am one of the few folks who actually like having the large webs dangling in the treetops or spanning between arbor posts.  The spiders are part of the charm of the Bayou and their decline makes me sad.  It also makes me ponder how many bugs we will have in the coming spring without the spiders there to munch them??? 

Happy Little Spider

 Since I have a tendency to let the shrubs in the yard do whatever they wish, the place starts to get a little wild and woolly.  Every once in a great while, I pull out the snips and give the things a good "haircut" but that is not often.  I prefer the "natural" look!  (Or I am just lazy when it comes to trimming bushes.)   My argument is that critters need places to hide!  I am all about helping those critters.

  Our driveway is a long lane that meanders through both of my brothers' properties before getting all the way down to the Bayou.  It is, more or less, a "community" drive since they share it as well.  The lane just keeps branching off to our respective homes.  At our end, the lane makes a large loop which allows for easy turnarounds. Both the inner and outer portions of this loop are planted with azaleas and other blooming shrubs.  Critters abound here since it is these bushes that are a tangled mess.  Today, I threatened to cut them all to the ground...threatened...did not do.  I couldn't.  A spider was using one bush as an anchor for its web.  That put a halt to the idea.  After all, I could not mess up such a nice home and, since I could not cut that one bush, cutting the rest would make it an unsightly mess!

  The spider in question goes by numerous names with the most proper common one being spinybacked orbweaver.  Folks around here have called them things such as crab spiders, jewelbox spiders, spiny belly spider and smiley face spider.  Some people like to be more uppity and combine all the names into something like the spinybacked, bejeweled, crab-like smiley faced spider.  Me?  I just call them cute, little spiders.  

  The spinybacked orbweavers are pretty much a southern critter and can be found in just about every yard down here.  Like all spiders, they do have venom but rarely bite.  If one ever does, it usually just causes a slight bit of swelling and maybe some itching after the initial pain of the puncture.  No big deal.  One cool thing is that these spiders advertise to all birds and even hapless humans that a web is strung across an area. Tiny white "flags" of silk are woven into their webs. These are there to warn us to steer clear.  After all, the spider does not want to catch us but, at the same time, does not want to rebuild a torn web. Smart spider!

  These little jewels can be found in an assortment of bright colors.  While most here on the Bayou are yellow or white, I have occasionally seen some almost orange and occasionally a red one.  All have six "spines" on their carapace (hence the name) and are found mostly during late summer and into fall. Their lifespans are relatively short as the male dies just a few days after mating and the female as soon as she lays her egg mass.  

  So, with all of that fun stuff about this little spider and considering it only has such a short life, it is only "right" that I do not trim the bushes!  It is just too pretty!