A couple of days ago, near sunset, as I was taking trash out to where the bins are on the side of the garage, I noticed a single thread of spider silk floating overhead. It was connected to the garage room about 10 feet up, the other end anchored about 15 feet up to the Italian cypress trees next to the driveway. Along the line I could see a single large-ish spider working. I’m no expert on spiders by any means, but I think it’s an orb weaver?
Today when I was heading out to get groceries I went to look and see what might have been built up there, lit up by the early morning Sun.
It’s been moderately windy here for the last couple of days, so the web must be pretty sturdy to not get torn apart by either the tugging of those cypress trees as they sway in the wind or from the wind itself.
The circular portion of the web here is about three feet across, roughly the size of a trash can lid.
While orb weavers are reluctant to bite and their venom is mostly mild and harmless to humans, my biggest concern is having a web like this built at head level, not 15 feet overhead. If I blindly walk into this in the dark while taking the trash out at night, then A) I’m going to be flailing and making dance moves that have never before been seen by man, and; B) I’m going to pull every muscle in my body doing so.
It won’t be pretty.
The instinctive engineering skills portrayed here are amazing. Having acknowledged that, let’s agree to keep to our separate spaces. I won’t destroy hours of your work and significant amounts of your resources which you’re using to feed yourself, and you won’t scare the shit out of me at random times.
Good talk!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 