View Full Version : Spider's Webs
BorderReiver
31-07-2004, 22:18
Any one else fed up with getting face fulls of spiders web in the woods at this time of year?
Every couple of minutes I walk into yet another web and get covered in sticky web,dead flies and angry spiders.
Why don't they build the damn things higher up? :?:
RovingArcher
31-07-2004, 23:37
:o): They practiced that just for you. :wink: I wondered the same thing when I was much younger and my good ol' Dad told me that they hang them where the bugs are. I said, oh. :lol:
When the spider webs get bad like that I often carry a small stick and with a flick of the wrist I wave it up and down in front of me as I walk. Works pretty good. :-)
As somone interested in trapping I always find my self looking at spiders webs with awe, they really are incredable!!!! the most effective trap on earth
TheViking
01-08-2004, 10:20
Hi...
I just look up to see where i'm going.... :wink: :biggthump
You're right Stuart, they're amazing things. It's better to watch your step and avoid destroying the web. It's the spiders food-source.... :biggthump :-)
Cheers :uu:
BorderReiver
01-08-2004, 12:20
Hi...
I just look up to see where i'm going.... :wink: :biggthump
You're right Stuart, they're amazing things. It's better to watch your step and avoid destroying the web. It's the spiders food-source.... :biggthump :-)
Cheers :uu:
I try very hard to avoid messing up the webs but they are very difficult to see in some lighting conditions.
On cold mornings the condensation on the fibres shows them up really well. :-) but at the moment-- :?:
I always try to find the spider on my clothes and leave it in the same place,I even apologise :shock: (only the dogs around to hear,so I won't get locked up) :lol:
I try very hard to avoid messing up the webs but they are very difficult to see in some lighting conditions.
I think thats the idea :roll:
BorderReiver
01-08-2004, 17:54
As somone interested in trapping I always find my self looking at spiders webs with awe, they really are incredable!!!! the most effective trap on earth
Do you know if the British spiders that make the webs shaped like funnels are related to the Australian Funnel Web Spider? Or do they just share a taste in web design? :-P
bushwacker bob
02-08-2004, 00:25
With the general increase in temperatures,and the importation of foreign species,accidental or deliberate, I wouldn't tempt fate BR!
Its probably a Funnelweb :yikes: :yikes:
Do you know if the British spiders that make the webs shaped like funnels are related to the Australian Funnel Web Spider? Or do they just share a taste in web design? :-P
the spider Atypus Affinis s the only british representitive of the of the Mygalomoroph group of spiders which produces tubed webs
Les Marshall
06-08-2004, 11:21
They are annoying are they not? Especially when the beastie in them is gert and hairy!
I seem to remember seeing a program a while back, where some natives actually wove spider webbs on a forked stick and used them to catch tiny fish.
Did anyone else see the program? I cannot remember who it was ( I've a feeling that it may have been the big man himself)
They are annoying are they not? Especially when the beastie in them is gert and hairy!
Nope,
Not at all annoying. Anything that eats wasps (like the big black hairy one that lives down the back of the sink here and has defeated all attempts to catch it for at least a year does) is OK by me.
Anyone know how long big hairy spiders live? is it the same one that's been popping out every now and then for at least a year, possibly two, or are we onto great great great grandchildren?
Cheers
David
One thing that bothers me is how much 'damage' am I causing to the spider by destroying a decent orb web. How much do they have to catch before they've replaced the energy used to make the web?
Wasn't it Shrek who made a popsicle from spiders webs and flies? :rolmao:
JFW
Wasn't it Shrek who made a popsicle from spiders webs and flies? :rolmao:
JFW
:yikes: :spider:
I suppose it's one way to make a protein lolly!
Burnt Ash
16-08-2004, 11:56
One thing that bothers me is how much 'damage' am I causing to the spider by destroying a decent orb web. How much do they have to catch before they've replaced the energy used to make the web?
Many spiders actually eat their defunct web/silk (not, of course, if you've walked off with it stuck to the front of your Swanni), so the nutrients are recycled.
Spiders and their webs are absolutely fascinating: many produce more than one kind of silk for different purposes.
Burnt Ash
Wasn't it Shrek who made a popsicle from spiders webs and flies? :rolmao:
JFWNo, it was Princess Fiona...
The funnels are from the Wolf Spider IIRC? You can tease them out with a thin grass stem.
I think spiders can live for a few years as I have found empty husks. And judging by the size of some of the funnels I saw...
I remember an episode of Mark O'Shea's series where he was after a spider for a anti-venin lab and they found some fangs that had been shed as the female spider grew. Was bloody SCARY!:yikes:
I like spiders webs when they are jewelled with dew or frost, but hate the damn things in my face...
i have read somewhere that a adverage person swallows 6 spiders a year in there sleep.... i wonder wheather being out doors increases that.
I wouldn't mind getting a few of the giant nephilla orb web spiders - their webs are said to be strong enough to catch fish and birds. Although my workshop colony of spiders is nice, they're not quite up to that standard.
Realgar
RovingArcher
16-08-2004, 16:03
I had chance to see a beautiful web attached to an old chicken coop in the area where I do a lot of hiking. It was awesome and very large. A couple of days ago, I noticed that the web was abandoned and in very poor shape. Took a photo of it.
http://img59.exs.cx/img59/682/hike003b.jpg
Wasn't it Shrek who made a popsicle from spiders webs and flies? :rolmao:
JFW
Certainly was, and Princess Fiona ate it!