One cool autumn night,
a friendly garden spider
dropped by to say hello….
I know that Yellow Garden Spiders (Argiope aurantia) eat pesky insects like mosquitoes and flies, so I am grateful to have a few of them ‘hanging-around’ in my backyard.
My problem is— I was bitten a few times by spiders when I was younger, and my mind still associates spiders with pain. For example, one time I accidentally took a shower with a spider at a campground restroom facility (my fault for not looking up first). The thirsty spider must have been sitting on the showerhead drinking drops of water when I turned on the faucet. Pushed downwards by the strong stream of water, it landed on my face. In a panic, the soaking wet spider bit me before moving into my hair for protection. Augh! Naked and afraid, I ran screaming out of that shower. Luckily, I was able to remove the poor spider from my hair with a brush. Of course, the other campers who had come in to take showers were laughing at me, but I bet they all checked the showerheads before they turned the water on!
All things considered, even though I don’t want spiders to come too close to me, I don’t chase them away. Spiders do an incredible job of keeping the insect population under control without the use of dangerous pesticides. We should all be thankful for that!
Before I Forget 
Gorgeous spider.
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Agreed….frighteningly beautiful females are gorgeous.
I read that female garden spiders usually don’t bite off the head of the male after mating (like some of the other spiders do).
Instead, the males often die of exhaustion and starvation because they put more effort into looking for love than eating.
Is being with a gorgeous woman really worth dying for?
I don’t think so. But then again, what do I know. I’m not a male. 🙂
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If you are a romantic male spider, it seems so. They are into chivilry.
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Good to see you in my inbox again 🙂 Great photo and story. I grew up with black widow spiders so am a little intimidated by them. I also stayed in a house that had an entire wall of throbbing daddy long legs. So I definitely give spiders their space.
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When I was about 6 years old, I found a dead black widow spider on a leaf in my backyard. I brought it inside for my mother to see the beautiful red hour-glass underneath. She screamed and said, “Take it back outside RIGHT NOW! That black widow spider is probably only pretending to be dead. It can kill you.”
My mom’s terrified voice scared me half to death. I quickly threw the leaf and the black widow out of the back door. Days later, that spider was still lying on the ground, motionless. It really was quite dead. But the fear lived on……
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Wow. We had black widows in our bathtub and one crawled on me but didn’t bite. My Mom had them inside her hall closet.
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Here in Texas–we were told to watch out for the brown recluse, which is a rather ordinary-looking small brown spider. I haven’t seen any yet. Some people say they have found them in closets or basements that are not often used. I think they enjoy hiding away in dark, quiet places. https://animalcorner.org/animals/brown-recluse-spider/
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My son got bitten by one in his So. CA college dorm but he called me and I had him take a homeopathic and he was fine.
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Thinking about what you said to me last night…
We have this in common as well! I have grown to love a good spider as I have aged, but as a child I had several disturbing encounters with them. 😯
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I bet everyone has at least one or 2 spider stories. The spider that intimidated me the most growing up in Maryland…was the “Jumping Spider.” Small and nervous with lots of eyes, twisting and turning and following my every move. Even if you stand a good distance away from them, they are capable of jumping an unbelievable distance (25 times farther than their size). I remember one flying through the air and landing on my finger. My whole finger turned purple after that bite.
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OOOH… Sorry, couldn’t click the like button on that bite! 😦 And, yes, we all have spider stories, don’t we?
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I love garden spiders! I have one living amongst the lilies under a window box this year. I think of them as writing spiders because of the characteristic zigzag they put in their webs. Your camp shower story sounds like the stuff of nightmares!
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I read that it was the garden spider that inspired the story with the spider in Charlotte’s web. Just found this interesting article by Bob Thomas on the Loyola University website: https://lucec.loyno.edu/natural-history-writings/garden-spider
With a little imagination, the zigzag portion of their webs does look like these spiders have added a few words in there– secret messages that only very creative and inquisitive minds can figure out. 🙂
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