Cobwebs and Ghost Ships

It has been a long time since I wrote anything about spiderwebs.  Not that there aren't many around the Bayou, it is just that you can try to convey the beauty of these natural masterpieces so many times before folks tire of it.  I have invited folks to wander around the hillside, marshes and gardens with me just to show them some web glistening in the early morning light but not one wishes to get up before dawn to see some stringy structure heavy laden with dewdrops.  I do not understand.  Each time I come across one of these works of art, I marvel.  There truly must be something wrong with my brain..or so I have been told.  "Common cobwebs are not beautiful!" is the proclamation that I so often hear.  Perhaps if folks could only view them as I do!

Then finally someone else took an interest!  Not in the predawn webs still bejeweled with dew but a ragtag web cloaked in mud.  Michael and I had been fishing from the pier when he spied the web.  Calling to me, he asked if I had ever seen a web like the one he found.  Yes, it was not that rare but that did not make it nonetheless fascinating.  A spider had created a web spanning two pier posts during the low tide of the night before.  Obviously, the water rose faster than the spider anticipated.  The web was now submerged beneath the murky waters.  Since the Bay was still slick calm, the web held mostly intact.  He and I stared at the web in the dark waters.  Imagination ran wild and the two of us marveled at how much the webbing resembled the rigging of a sunken ship.  He looked at the similarities logically while my vivid imagination ran amok.  I could fully see how the ship had met its fate in a violent hurricane!  The small twig caught up in the web was part of the mast that had been cracked in two by the high winds and turbulent seas.  Although calm now, the roughness of the storm had sunk the massive ship.  Now, the lines lay slack with no sails catching the winds.  A Ghost Ship was all that was left..one to be manned by the denizens of the sea.

My vision soon came to as violent end as did the make-believe ship.   The coming of a thunderstorm whipped up the winds over the Bay and decimated the muddy web.  How fitting that the waves would end the spider's web just as an imaginary hurricane had ended the voyage of my "Ghost Ship"!  At least someone else had taken an interest in the natural beauty to be found in the lowly spider's web and we both agreed that it did, indeed, resemble a ship's rigging!  (Albeit, his was a much more straightforward interest.)  Michael questioned the tensile strength of the web and the logic of the arachnid that spun the web. This was a far cry from what I saw but I am glad he pondered the web.  Personally, though, my view was much more entertaining!

Beauty and Strength

Have you ever wondered about the strength of a spider's web? Probably not..unless you are someone like me that ponders about the things that I see while out and about the Bayou area. Something occurred that made me start thinking that those spiders are the most knowledgeable of all builders. If mankind could only capture their ability, our homes and businesses would be much safer. There was some sort of "earth-shaking" here yesterday. The windows rattled, the floor shook and the glassware in the china cabinet all tinkled against one another. I have no idea what caused the rumbling and grumbling but whatever it was, it really shook the Little Bayou House. That shaking and something I saw while on the pier, caused me to wish I was as smart as those spiders! Sure, their webs shake with the slightest of breeze but it is really rather hard to demolish one. In proportion to the size of the webbing, the amount of stress that they can withstand is amazing. Perhaps if we built houses out of spider's webs there would be less damage during hurricanes, earthquakes and such. I will be the first to admit that I do not like spiders in my house but if one decided to make it stronger, it would have my ok!

Those teeny, tiny strands can literally hold up a good bit..they have to..just think if a large bug got entangled. If the webbing was weak, the meal would go free. Kevlar (that stuff that is used for body armor because of its high tensile strength to weight ratio) is said to be five times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis. That in itself sounds pretty good but when you find out that a spider can make silk that is ten times tougher that Kevlar, you have to think that the spider should win the prize! Can you imagine...ten times tougher than Kevlar??? Of course, that spider is not on the Bayou, it is over there in Madagascar but I am still amazed at my little local spiders. Several months ago, I posted a picture of a web that was laden with droplets from the thick blanket of fog that engulfed the Bayou. I was in awe of the strength of that web.

But now..a new web. While not as lovely in appearance as the fog-laden web necklace, this was just as impressive. The sheer strength and durability of this web is what caught my eye and started all of this rambling. The spider had obviously spun the web during low tide as it spanned the distance between two of the pier posts. The only problem..the poor spider had not accounted for the tide change. When the tide rose, the spider web was underwater, however, it stayed intact! Not even the waves had torn the intricate pattern! The actual webbing was about three feet in diameter with several feet of stringers attaching it to the posts. I am not sure why it chose to make its web over the water but the tide definitely put a dent in the spider's plans. Unless maybe this spider was trying to catch a fish!