About two weeks ago, I came home and let the dog out into the backyard. It was dark at this point, and so when I let her back in, I turned on the outside light.
Which is when I saw this:
Once I let the dog in, I shut the door and just started to stare at it. And then of course grabbed my camera to take pictures of it. I took these from behind the door, which explains why it looks like this spider is floating in mid-air.
Last week when my mom threatened to kill it, I begged her not to, and then proceeded to search the internet. I even looked at pictures of creepy spiders before bed and didn't have any nightmares.
Turns out, this type of spider is what they call an orb web weaver. It totally builds its web in corners of doorways and can hang out in gardens. The cool part is that it spins a new web everyday and apparently it can put a special white part of the web to detract birds from running into it during the day. I haven't seen "our" spider do this though. Mainly it just hangs out in its web throughout the night hoping to catch something and during the day it crouches between two wooden slats near the door frame.
With the help of this article by a professor of Entomology at Cornell University, I learned that this type of spider is called a Cat-Face Spider and it's totally harmless. I might have my brother try to relocate it though. I am not sure how much longer my mom will allow it to be near the back door.
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| I guess I can kinda make out a cat face... |
Secretly, this spider reminds me of Charlotte's Web, only I hope in this case it doesn't have a bunch of spiderlings. That would not be okay nor welcomed.
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| My favorite part of the spider is its huge butt. |
6 comments:
Interesting, i was totally thinking about Charlotte's Web recently!
-m
Yea, now you can see what i was telling you about!
Ugh! I am arachnophobic all the way. I cannot stand to be near spiders - only those teeny tiny green ones you can squash really easily...I know...I'm a horrible spider murderer. I plead insanity.
The spiders I am most scared of are redback spiders (highly poisonous) and bulbous bodied, black furry spiders...
*shudders*
Yikes! The redback spider sounds similar to the black widow spider we have here. Now that would freak me out. alot. I guess the more I learn about spiders, the more my fear kinda goes away. But like I said, you won't find me actually touching or moving the spider. I prefer to watch it from behind the glass door.
Bah! I would have totally killed it. I'm not terrified of spiders but I certainly don't like them
If this were in my house I would've screamed and then made someone else kill it--it's too big for me to squish I think without wondering if somehow the spider would hurt me through my shoes. I know, so illogical!
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