CLOSED: Pretty spider with Rick Rack web

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missingrosie Hillsborough, NC(Zone 7b) Sep 12, 2015

Sure it is common, but I have not seen it before and have lived in this setting 16 years. Will you identify? The markings are so pretty. Will it give a harmful sting? Is it likely to? Thanks

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ilv2grdn Cross Timbers, MO(Zone 6a) Sep 12, 2015

What you have there is the beautiful Garden spider (Argiope aurantia). https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Invertebrates/Garden-Spider.aspx


My all time favorite spider. And I HATE spiders! I love to throw grasshoppers or moths into it's web and watch them roll it up in a blanket of web. It's amazing to watch a literally wide and flat, just like a blanket come out of it's abdomen. If want them to stay, be careful not to disturb their web or they will leave. Excellent first time spider for anyone, especially children, to watch and learn about spiders and how they catch and preserve their food. The shiny white zig-zag structure in the center is designed to reflect light to attract insects. Much like insects are attracted to a light bulb.

If you feed her, she will stay where living is easy. You just might see a much smaller male come to visit. Later, up under a near by leaf, you will see one or two large egg cases that will contain a thousand or more each. When the eggs hatch, the babies will stay for a few days eating small insects, building strength for their long journey. Amazingly fascinating! They will pick a day when the wind is coming from the north, each baby will make a large mass of web, like a kite that will be carried off on the wind, called ballooning. Where they land...no one knows! But they can be carried for hundreds of miles at a time. They travel south on the wind for the winter. Some will stay in the south, some will come back on a south wind in the spring. You may have another next year or you may not. Who knows? They don't try to return to the place where they were born.

All of nature is fascinating! Have fun!

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missingrosie Hillsborough, NC(Zone 7b) Sep 12, 2015

THANK YOU.
Your description was,Ike a poem. VERY visual. I have been watching as it is right ousted my window at the perfect height for viewing. I looked it up and the one source I read said the eggs are on the web under a nest of fluff. I will check the leaves near ( it is attached to Japanese maple ) and look for the male.

Thanks again.

Post #10141333
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