I Have The Coolest Spiders in My House
They weave a web much like the safety net below the circus high-wire, parallel to the ceiling. The strands are so fine, that they are virtually invisible; difficult to see even up close, and impossible from a few feet away. As you can see, they walk on this web, with their backs to the ceiling.From a distance, they appear to be walking on thin air.
I actually once saw one of these spiders grab a fly out of mid-air, as it flew by. It was like a trapdoor spider grabbing a bug, but it pounced from above, rather than from below. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen a spider (or any other bug, for that matter) do.I get such a kick out of my air-walking arachnids that I just can't bring myself to sweep down their web and run them off.
I try to not walk directly underneath them, however, for fear that I'll end up bound by silk, to the ceiling!
x
posted by Jon @ 7:07 PM
7 Comments:
If Siddra had a living hell...that would be it.
Steve would agree with Siddra, but I actually like spiders. To me all spiders are Charlotte, but to Steve they're all Shelob.
--Joy
nifty. It would creep me out though.
sweet pics. Deahna would have had me kill that before the pic was taken. I say leave the spider alone.
You know, that really looks a lot like a brown recluse, but they don't build that kind of web. If you get a chance, I'd love to see a dorsal view (from the top down) of your new octoped friends.
Noah,
I'll try, although they spend most of their time (there's two of them) with their backs to the ceiling.
I know they aren't Brown Recluses, not only because their behavior and living arrangements don't match that species, but also because I have seen one of them up close, and it lacks the "fiddle back" markings.
Interestingly, the one I saw up close lowered himself down from the ceiling, onto me, as I was watching tv. After a quick jaunt around my neck, down my arm and across my leg, he ran across the floor and up the opposite wall.
Apparently, it was as curious about me as I am about it.
My friend Carol says that I am sometimes too tolerant of the spiders in my house. As long as they eat the flies, though, they get a free pass from me.
I like spiders, but there are only two kinds around my place: A genuine Brown recluse infestation (of which I have glue traps full of, well over 100 caught over the last 2 years) and "Barn Spider" orb weavers, which I love... they stay outside, though. http://flickr.com/photos/kc-bike/3839174584
Although they're large and are capable of biting, I've never been bitten by one despite having held several of them. Even if they do bite, it's not bad, from what I hear: on par with a mosquito bite, really. Localized itching and not much more.
I didn't figure they were brown recluses because recluses don't web like that at all, and I've seen (again) HUNDREDS of them. I'd just like to try to identify them, but I need a dorsal view to go with the ventral one shown here.
At my home in Nebraska, we had "Garden Spiders" or "Banana Spiders" - the very large yellow/black orb-weavers that spin zig-zags of silk into their webs. Of all midwest spiders, those are my favorite.
Thanks for sharing!
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