The Not-So-Itsy-Bitsy-Spider

I was racing through the tall grass last week when I came face to face with a monster.  About three inches long from the tips of the front to the back legs, an enormous spider was bouncing up and down on its huge web, right in front of my snout.  I came to an abrupt halt and sat back on my haunches.  Was it dangerous?

As it turns out, no.  The spider was a female common garden spider, or Argiope aurantia (the arachnid's scientific, or Latin, name).  They are also commonly called "black and yellow" spiders, for perhaps obvious reasons, and "writing" spiders, because of the irregular patterns in their webs.  These spiders may have been the inspiration for Charlotte, of "Charlotte's Web" fame.

Garden spiders spin large, circular webs, often exceeding two feet in diameter!  Unless the web is irreparably damaged, the spider will maintain a single web for the duration of the season, making repairs as necessary.

The spider will hang, head down, in the center of the web and wait for its prey to become entangled in the silken strands.  When I saw this spider bouncing on her web, she may have been trying to scare me off, which she certainly did!  Or, she may have been trying to make herself harder to see, in case I was considering eating her for lunch... which I certainly was not!  The cat ate a spider once and he was sick for a whole day.  Yuck!

These spiders eat insects, and are considered harmless to both people and dogs.  In fact, they are beneficial to have around the yard, as they will eat the mosquitoes and other pesky biting insects that harass us during the summer months.

This time of year, the female spider will create and protect an egg sac, which will contain up to 1000 individual spider eggs.  She will guard it until her death, around the time of the first hard frost.  However, just like in "Charlotte's Web", her tiny young will emerge in the spring and will carry on where she left off.  They will send up a string of silk, which catch on the spring breeze and carry the young spiders into gardens around Des Moines.

Can you find a garden spider, before the first frost?  Send in your garden spider photos with your comments, and have fun!