When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion



New Garden Friend

Fall is in the air which means garden season is over.  It is time for apples, pears, pumpkins, cider, bonfires and camping.  I received a ton of garlic to plant, but I must wait about another week to put it in the dirt.  The squash, cucumber, and cherry tomato I planted up the trellis of my porch was starting to wilt so I decided it was time to take it down.





As I was reaching up to grab the last of the squash vine I noticed that there was something very much alive still on the vine.  Depending on where you are from, you might call her a garden spider, an orb weaver, a writing spider, banana spider or corn spider.  Since I was a little girl I had one build its web outside my bedroom window every year until I moved out on my own.  Even after I was gone I knew I could expect to see one of the beautiful and unique webs with the "z" in the middle if I came and visited my old room.  Since I've moved away from the country I have missed the appearance of these startlingly beautiful arachnids.  I was very shocked to find one outside my house in the middle of town.

I moved her to under my kitchen window in hopes she would stay there and build a web.  She sat on the bricks for the rest of the day, but by that morning she had created a huge web across my large kitchen window.  She has become somewhat of a family "pet"---or as much of a pet as a giant outdoor spider can be.  Every morning when A. James gets up she runs to the kitchen to see if the spider is still there.  She likes to peer out the window and examine her and ask tons and tons of questions.  When a bug finds itself in her web she jumps up and down excitedly and shouts, "She has caught a bug, she has caught a bug!"  This prompted me to check out The Spider and the Fly from out local library.  Now she says, "Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly."  It is morbidly funny.

She has laid two egg sacks so far.  However, I read that they can lay anywhere from 1 to 4 and she is getting quite large again.  Unfortunately, she will die with the first hard frost---but her babies will hatch out in the spring.  Until then we will continue to watch her and learn what we can.