I walked right past the first one I noticed, not knowing how my five-year-old would react to it.
Then I saw another. Then another. The area was crawling with garden spiders, those large colorful spiders often found in fields and, of course, gardens.
Eventually I brought them to the attention of Andrew and he reacted by exclaiming: "Oh, cool!"
Guess I didn't have to worry about his reaction after all.
The next one we found had a large bee wrapped up in silk. The spider was not eating the prey, but it made for a good nature lesson for Andrew nonetheless.
We are used to seeing small spiders in the house. Those spiders are small, inconspicuous and pretty much just blend in with the home environment. Occasionally a larger spider will build a web outside our windows or around our deck, but they just look like overgrown house spiders. Then there are the darker spiders unearthed when we sort through the wood pile. And, of course, daddy longlegs are found almost daily in the yard or garage.
Andrew's been seeing those spiders for years. At this point, they are already old hat.
But, as far as I know, these were his first garden spiders. They are in many ways the antithesis of our common house spiders. Instead of small, dull and inconspicuous, garden spiders are large, colorful and obvious. They also build their large webs in rather obvious places in fields and gardens, not in the corners of rooms or in wood piles. Despite their handsome appearance, they are still spiders and seem to call out: "Don't mess with me."
One important similarity they share with other spiders found in New England is that they are harmless (to humans, anyway). Despite their intimidating size and appearance, they do not bite humans. If they are provoked enough to bite a person it will cause only minor swelling and itching. (I read that last part in a book, I've never actually experienced it first-hand.)
Like many members of the animal kingdom it is the female that is larger and more conspicuous. Females can grow more than an inch long, which may not sound that impressive, but add on eight long, hairy legs and you've got a classic creature from scary movies or Halloween decor. That was my hesitation in showing Andrew, but apparently he's not arachnaphobic. I should have known better, he's a kid who picks up centipedes and puts them in the compost pile. I was well into my adult years before I could tolerate centipedes.
Male garden spiders grow to be only about a quarter of an inch long.
Garden spiders continuously spin silk, from the time they emerge from the cocoon until the time they die. The are capable of spinning different types of silk for different purposes. Of course some of the silk is sticky for catching prey, including large prey such as grasshoppers and cicadas. Other silk on the web is not sticky. Garden spider webs also feature a thicker zig-zag pattern in the center of the web where the spider hangs out upside down.
Everything about the garden spider is impressive: the web, the hunting prowess, the size, the color.
Not only did the spider make an immediate impression on Andrew, it made a lasting one as well. As soon as we got home, Andrew insisted that we break out the Halloween decorations, starting with the large black spider. What the heck, if department stores can start selling Christmas decorations in September, we can certainly get ready for Halloween in September.

Return to archives