In celebration of Halloween, I’m writing about some of the creepy crawlies around my house and garden, in particular, spiders. This time of year, spiders are abundant as females lay eggs before cold weather settles in for good. Spiders vary tremendously in size and potential danger. Though there are a lot of people who are terrified of all spiders, for the most part, the common spiders in our area will not cause any serious harm.
One of the most beautiful and non-threatening spiders is the yellow garden spider. This one is easy to identify as it will weave zig zag lines in the center of the web. For this reason it’s also called the “writing” spider. Although it’s startling to come across this large spider on a deck or in the garden, it’s relatively harmless. It will bite you if provoked, but that’s an unlikely scenario. And, it is not true that if a spider writes your name in its web, you are the next to die.
A little more startling to see but equally as benign is the very large huntsman spider. This large, leggy spider is originally from Asia but is now found in southern regions throughout the world. It might look a little like the venomous brown recluse, but it is quite different and is not nearly as dangerous. The huntsman is also known as the giant crab spider or the banana spider.
I searched the World wide WEB for more information on spiders and came up with these facts:
- Most “Daddy long legs” are not really spiders
- Jumping spiders can jump 50 x their own body length
- Most spiders have 8 eyes.
- The Goliath Birdeater spider from South America has a body 4 1/2 inches long and leg span up to 11 inches long.
- Though a black widow spider has venom more poisonous than that of a rattlesnake, they rarely bite humans and even more rarely inject their full venom load.
I hope that you and yours have a fun and happy Halloween!
Laura