Garden spiders are our friends, right?

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This beauty was in a Japanese maple maybe 6-8 feet away for weeks, until it just vanished one day a couple of weeks ago. Well I just found her. The question is, what about what looks like her egg sac in the top right of the picture? Should I just leave them be? I like having the garden spiders around, but I’m guessing I’ll have a bumper crop. Not sure if they will head inside under the eaves when they emerge or what, with cool weather coming on.

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Leave her & the kids alone until the 1st time you get a face full of web on your way to the new scooter.


Then break out the F%$* the Genva Convention-brand bug spray (right hand) and weed torch (left hand).
 
Orb spider. Mostly harmless. Leave it alone. They make beautiful webs, their bite is about as bad as a wasp sting but they rarely bite.

I’ve face planted a web and felt one of them run across my face and disappear.
 
Make no mistake, I like having momma spider out there. I usually find just one in the yard every few years in a great big web. I was just wondering about all them babies.
 
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

Hand sized one planted right in my face during a land nav course in Ft Sill circa 1997. I walked right into it. My BB thought I was going to freak, but I just gently placed my hand under it and removed it, then continuing on to the next check point compass still in my hand. I used to feed the ones in my yard as a child growing up.
 
Found this one the other day, haven't looked up to see what it was yet. ETA: Apparently this beauty is a Green Lynx Spider.
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This beauty was in a Japanese maple maybe 6-8 feet away for weeks, until it just vanished one day a couple of weeks ago. Well I just found her. The question is, what about what looks like her egg sac in the top right of the picture? Should I just leave them be? I like having the garden spiders around, but I’m guessing I’ll have a bumper crop. Not sure if they will head inside under the eaves when they emerge or what, with cool weather coming on.

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We always called that a writing spider, never caused no problems. Although, she is writing in cursive or just sloppy as hell.


I ain't no veterinarian, but that needs to be looked at, popped or something.
 
We always called that a writing spider, never caused no problems. Although, she is writing in cursive or just sloppy as hell.



I ain't no veterinarian, but that needs to be looked at, popped or something.
That was the spider bite on my butt cheek from a couple of years ago. Most painful thing I've experienced in a long, long time. The black spot was a hole.
 
We had a fishing spider (not this one) inside our compost bin for a while last year. It didn't bother me, and I didn't bother it. But I did take care to open the lid away from myself when it was time to add anything to the bin.
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I used to use them as targets for my Ruger Single Six firing shotshells when growing up in Texas. Always find them behind the house in the woods here in NC. I now leave them alone.


CD
 
That was the spider bite on my butt cheek from a couple of years ago. Most painful thing I've experienced in a long, long time. The black spot was a hole.


:DHere's @Geezer receiving the Medal Of Honor from LBJ after getting bit by a spider in the buttocks:

 
I used to catch flies in mid air (no kidding, I was pretty quick when younger....... pathetic for a "claim to fame" but hey, you work with what you have!....... and we often had large garden spider webs about. I would release the fly into the web and then watch with fascination as she did her work. They are amazing creatures. They loved to build near floodlights, and we had a community pool with tons of lights. They were all over the place.

Spiders are astoundingly good for us all, eating somewhere between 300 to 800 METRIC TONS of insects (mostly) per year https://gizmodo.com/the-amount-of-food-spiders-eat-each-year-will-haunt-you-1793258169
 
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In case you don't have enough nightmares already:

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If spiders were as big as housecats, it would be unsafe for us to go outside!

I was a huge fan as a kid in the late 50s and early 60s of the B grade scifi horror flick ("Them" was a big one, about ants of huge size... also one from Mexico about a giant scorpion from "radiation"... can't remember the name).

A little scientific study about spiders with some theatrical license would have scared the living crap out of me. It probably still would.
 
I have a whole spider eco-system at my house. There's no stopping em.
I've resolved myself to live with them vs. against them.
I let the webs alone, they catch the stinkbugs and and moths. Last link in the chain are the toads headquartered in my basement that eat the spiders.
The outdoor cats take care of everything else.

Livin in the mountains. When you buy property here, they toss in the spiders at no extra cost.
 
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