BE KIND TO SPIDERS

This page will contain interesting informational bits about spiders. 

When I was a child I was afraid of spiders. My mom used to make me kill the big black hairy spiders she would find around the house. She would scream until I squashed them in a kleenex and looked to see that they were dead. And I had nightmares.

When I grew a bit older I wanted to get rid of my fear so I started learning about spiders and realized that they were good for the world by keeping the insect population down. Kind of like how wolves weed out the elk population. Most spiders are harmless to humans.

One of my favorite spiders is the Daddy Long Legs, also called Cellar Spiders. They like to live in darkish corners and in basements. They cannot bite a human but their primary food is other spiders. They have been known to capture black widows and other "dangerous to human" spiders.

Here is a video of a Cellar Spider capturing a White Tailed Spider:






Picture of a Daddy Longlegs (cellar Spider) taken in my house after she had held the egg sack for days. Here they are, all hatched out: 

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At the end of Summer I have noticed the large webs around my yard. In the center of each one is a large Cross Back Garden Spider, an orb weaver. Usually I try not to break the webs, but if I need to I gently push it away so that the spider is unharmed and she can eat her old web and build a new one. I always apologize for destroying their webs because I know what hard work it is for them. Here is a picture of one of my big girls.

She has eggs growing inside her abdomen. The males are much smaller:

 And here is a picture of the babies:

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 Another one of my favorite spiders is called The Jumping Spider. There are so many kind of them. Some people keep them as pets. They are a very small spider and have a very cute, alien looking face because of the two big eyes. Here is a little video of a pet jumping spider named Gretchan:




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 There are lots of videos by a man who raises these little jumping spiders from Australia. They are called Peacock Spiders. The males are really pretty and sure do know how to dance to try to attract a mate. This video has music from Australia:







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 This is a short video of a woman holding a Wolf Spider. These spiders are wandering spiders and hunt their prey by chasing them down and then pouncing. They are very good mothers and carry their egg sac around with them and when the babies hatch, they ride around on momma's back:


 

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Here are links to information and pictures for Oregon spiders:

http://www.spiders.us/species/filter/oregon/ 

Yard Spiders

House Spiders

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 Here is an amazing video of a cross-backed garden spider attacking it's prey. Notice that the prey is quickly wrapped up in silk and injected with spider venom and then saved for later.






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 The sand spider buries in the sand for protection and to ambush it's prey. This spider can live for up to a year without eating or drinking.

Silly Sand Spider:



 

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Crab spiders hide in flowers, sometimes taking on the color of the flower. Watch this white crab spider pounce on a bee:





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 Here is another hunting spider, the jumping spider. Watch THIS spider attack a bee. See who wins.





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 I saw this White Spotted Jumping Spider sunning itself on my screen door and took some pictures:

Notice the large head.

Notice the smiling face.

Notice her iridescent green fangs.

Big bright eyes with keen vision. Two in front and three smaller eyes on each side.

She has the decoration of a smiley face on her abdomen and was quite large. I thought she was cute, especially when she ran to hide and then peered out at me. Notice her little tufts of hair. These spiders are not poisonous or dangerous to humans. They can be very helpful in keeping down the insect population.

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This is a large Cross Orb Weaver female sitting on a two foot web in a corner of my back yard:

Cross Orb Weaver Fall 2016

 This is a close up picture of a wolf spider. This one was pretty small and looked like it was sunning itself. These spiders don't build webs but hunt like wolves . . chasing down their prey. The females carry their egg sacs and the babies will ride on her back until they are large enough to leave and hunt for themselves.

Small Spider Back Yard 2016

Here is a picture of a giant house spider which is a funnel weaver. This one was living on the side of my house for a few weeks.

Giant House Spider (genus Eratigena)

These spiders live mostly outside and prefer dark locations. They are reluctant to bite and their bites are not dangerous. I love the pattern on her thorax which looks like a face or skull. 
Here is a side view of the same spider: 

Watch here for more!