Remember this? Taken last year, when I found it tucked away in the side of the back yard door. Someone told me it was a spider's cocoon, and I watched it carefully throughout the winter.
Latterly it began to have a tattered, dried-out look, and I thought that maybe the hard winter had done for its tiny inhabitants.
Until this morning.
Dozens of cute little spiderlings on the door, busy doing whatever it is they do until they can disperse. If disturbed, they scatter, but huddle together again within moments.
I'm not scared of spiders, but I don't know much about them, so I think I may need to do a little research. Such an ordinary, everyday creature, the spider, but still a marvel of Nature.
15 comments:
I do believe they are baby garden spiders http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/347.shtml I also don't mind spiders and find them quite fascinating.
Why, so they are! Thank you for that link, RO. I have a number of such spiders in the yard in late summer, getting bigger and bigger. Now I know why.....
They are so cute at that size! Lovely how they run back together again ...safety in numbers?
As everything blooms, the critters are definitely on the move. My daughter and I spent hours this week picking the greenfly, brownfly and aphids off of our roses.
I think that spiders do GOOD things, but I'm not sure what. Do you they eat the bad critters, by any chance? Flies, for instance . . .
I love spiders and always have. These tiny babies are too sweet. I bet you are appy that they're outside and not inside. Rounding them up for that move would be challenging, to say the least. xo les Gang
Do they catch mice?
Outside? Love spiders!
Inside? They get the shoe.
Oh, Marcheline! Ugh.
Not a huge fan of spiders. Ok as long as they're not, for example, down the back of my neck.
That lot look like quite a big family... However, baby anythings are quite cute.
I saw these once. If you tapped the web they scattered like pearls on a breaking necklace.
Exactly so, Lucille - only I don't have to tap anything; just opening the door a little is enough to scatter them. I wonder of they're waiting for a breeze to float away on threads?
Marcheline - bad bad karma! just take the indoor spider outside instead of killing it... You know it makes sense!
I would not be keen on tangling with funnel webs or mouse spiders(Yes, we have those, but don't tell Millie!), but their engineering fascinates me. And I love the word spiderlings! Makes them seem sort of fairy tale-ish!
Oooh, I just had to google mouse spiders after that, dinahmow, and they are HORRIBLE! Not like my little fairytale babies at all.....
The marvels of nature!!Great cradle their mother chose too, so safe.
How fascinating - probably OK in quantity at that size but I think if they got much bigger and didn't disperse I wouldn't like them so much.
Terrific photos, Rachel! It says much about you that these little things matter to you.
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