Comments on: Harmless garden spider of the week http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:28:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Lara http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-80586 Lara Mon, 09 Jul 2007 02:44:58 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-80586 Twisty those are some kickass photos. I do photography so I can appreciate good shots when I see them. What type of lens and camera were you using? -Lara Twisty those are some kickass photos. I do photography so I can appreciate good shots when I see them. What type of lens and camera were you using?
-Lara

]]> By: Denise http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-80133 Denise Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:52:02 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-80133 I had a couple of those in my flowers last summer. It broke my heart to have to make them move when I moved apartments. They're so lovely and interesting. They can get to be rather big. By the time I moved out of that apartment their bodies were about 3/4 an inch long and of course their legs were much longer. Their webs get progressively messier as time goes on, then they shed their skins, wrap them up in the remains of their old crappy web, and then eat it all up and make a new, nice web with the distinctive zig-zag that you can see in Twisty's second picture. I had a couple of those in my flowers last summer. It broke my heart to have to make them move when I moved apartments. They’re so lovely and interesting.

They can get to be rather big. By the time I moved out of that apartment their bodies were about 3/4 an inch long and of course their legs were much longer.

Their webs get progressively messier as time goes on, then they shed their skins, wrap them up in the remains of their old crappy web, and then eat it all up and make a new, nice web with the distinctive zig-zag that you can see in Twisty’s second picture.

]]> By: RoseCampion http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79961 RoseCampion Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:58:41 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79961 Is that spider really as big as it looks? I guess it really is true what they say about everything being bigger in Texas. I approve of spiders in theory, but in practice, I get creeped out by anything bigger than one of those wolf spiders you sometimes see here in Chicago. Is that spider really as big as it looks? I guess it really is true what they say about everything being bigger in Texas. I approve of spiders in theory, but in practice, I get creeped out by anything bigger than one of those wolf spiders you sometimes see here in Chicago.

]]> By: MzNicky http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79923 MzNicky Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:16:10 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79923 Okay, we got about 1/16th of an inch of rain tonight. All the spiders are packing up and moving to Texas. Okay, we got about 1/16th of an inch of rain tonight. All the spiders are packing up and moving to Texas.

]]> By: Jodie http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79862 Jodie Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:48:31 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79862 Praying Manti do eat each other. I will never forget the time one laid eggs right above my door; I left the house in a rain of what looked like tiny straws only to realize they were teeny tiny Praying Manti (mantuses?), and some were already gorging on siblings right then and there. Praying Manti do eat each other. I will never forget the time one laid eggs right above my door; I left the house in a rain of what looked like tiny straws only to realize they were teeny tiny Praying Manti (mantuses?), and some were already gorging on siblings right then and there.

]]> By: Ron Sullivan http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79861 Ron Sullivan Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:48:27 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79861 Larkspur, I got over any residual spider fear when I wrote a feature about them and talked to spider experts and then, in the course of watching the orbweaving types in my yard -- ours are orangish, have big round butts, and get big and conspicuous around Hallowe'en, so one of my correspondents calls them "Jack-o'-lantern spiders -- found myself trying to imagine how the world looks through those eight (or howevermany) eyes. Ditto with jumping spiders, who are hilarious and rather catlike in their eyesight and methods. Reason/knowledge -> empathy: good way out of scaredyhood. So far. Twisty, lovely. Good catch on that exoskeleton, too. Larkspur, I got over any residual spider fear when I wrote a feature about them and talked to spider experts and then, in the course of watching the orbweaving types in my yard — ours are orangish, have big round butts, and get big and conspicuous around Hallowe’en, so one of my correspondents calls them “Jack-o’-lantern spiders — found myself trying to imagine how the world looks through those eight (or howevermany) eyes. Ditto with jumping spiders, who are hilarious and rather catlike in their eyesight and methods.

Reason/knowledge -> empathy: good way out of scaredyhood. So far.

Twisty, lovely. Good catch on that exoskeleton, too.

]]> By: larkspur http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79819 larkspur Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:01:44 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79819 Oh, Liz, you totally read my brain with this part: <i>Damn, that babe has legs up to here. Shameless wolf whistle.</i> But this part caught me by surprise: <i>Did she eat her husband yet?</i> Thank you Liz. Thank you Twisty. I don't often get that laff riot feeling so early (left coast here), and whoa, it didn't hurt a bit. Plus y'all are helping me deal with my fear of the Spider. I already know not to kill 'em unless they have me by the throat. But they are remarkably elegant-looking. And yet: still mostly kinda terrifying. Oh, Liz, you totally read my brain with this part: Damn, that babe has legs up to here. Shameless wolf whistle.

But this part caught me by surprise: Did she eat her husband yet?

Thank you Liz. Thank you Twisty. I don’t often get that laff riot feeling so early (left coast here), and whoa, it didn’t hurt a bit.

Plus y’all are helping me deal with my fear of the Spider. I already know not to kill ‘em unless they have me by the throat. But they are remarkably elegant-looking.

And yet: still mostly kinda terrifying.

]]> By: silvia sea http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79816 silvia sea Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:54:33 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79816 Hey, if you folks in Austin want to send some of that rain our way, we'd love it! (it's dry where I live.) Hey, if you folks in Austin want to send some of that rain our way, we’d love it! (it’s dry where I live.)

]]> By: Sara http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79810 Sara Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:05:11 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79810 Neato! Neato!

]]> By: Caukee http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79728 Caukee Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:47:49 +0000 http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2007/07/04/harmless-garden-spider-of-the-week/#comment-79728 Do they eat the exoskeleton ? It shouldn't go to waste. It seems to me that with these spiders, as with the Praying Manti in my yard, we start out with thousands of tiny ones that get larger and fewer throughout the summer and fall. Are they cannibalistic ? both or either ? Seems to be a theme. Off in search of sustenance. I would eat some the blueberries from my bushes, but they aren't ready, because someone is hogging all the rain. My SO, the medical librarian, says "seratonin" is a common misspelling of serotonin. I can't tell. Spelling fell out of my brain a while back. Do they eat the exoskeleton ? It shouldn’t go to waste.

It seems to me that with these spiders, as with the Praying Manti in my yard, we start out with thousands of tiny ones that get larger and fewer throughout the summer and fall. Are they cannibalistic ? both or either ?

Seems to be a theme. Off in search of sustenance. I would eat some the blueberries from my bushes, but they aren’t ready, because someone is hogging all the rain.

My SO, the medical librarian, says “seratonin” is a common misspelling of serotonin. I can’t tell. Spelling fell out of my brain a while back.

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