I found this spider crawling around on the side of a shed last summer. With its dark, leathery, flattened body and disconcertingly slow movement, it seemed rather, well, sinister. It certainly appeared much meaner than most of the spiders to be found in the garden: a sneaky, dangerous-looking creature with something of the night about it. Concerned that it might be capable of a nasty bite, I left it well alone.In fact, this little beastie is a perfectly ordinary, harmless garden spider. Despite being extremely common it is rarely seen as it is mostly active at night. During the day it squeezes its thin body into crevices, often under bark, hidden well out of sight of any predators. Then in the evening it emerges, cautiously, and spins its flat, circular web. Once it has finished this construction it will move to the web’s centre and stay there perfectly still, waiting for unwary flying insects to get trapped.
If the spider feels spooked during the night it will return to hide in its crevice, slowly following a guideline of silk. Before the sun rises it completely dismantles its web, leaving no trace that it was ever there. Given that the webs can reach 70 cm in diameter, this daily cycle of building and demolition seems like an extraordinary waste of effort. Maybe all this work just fills the time, or maybe the webs are actually a bit naff and so wouldn't last more than a night anyway.
If you spot one of these spiders it's likely to be a female. These are bigger, at up to 15 mm long, and are active all year. Males on the other hand only ever grow to 9 mm and are only out and about during the summer. Interestingly, if you pick up a male it may bite you, although however hard it chomps down it won't do you any real harm. The Walnut Orb-Weaver would seem therefore not to be the villain it appears. It does 'live in the shadows' as its Latin name Nuctenea umbractica implies, but this is simply because it is too cowardly to come out during the day.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteAre you sure it doesn't bite? I've read contradicting info. We have one in our garden on the washing line, it hides in crevice and only comes out at night to spin a huge, not very well made web which as you say, it dismantles before sunise. I'm worried it'll have babies that will come in with our washing off the line! Am I best to move her?
Thanks.
This spider is capable of delivering a bite to humans. The bite is moderately painful and last a couple of hours, but they are medically insignificant. Any offspring she does have will move away from the area very quickly. I would move her if she makes you too uncomfortable, otherwise she will cause you no harm where she is :-))
DeleteGabrielle, you are right to question the bite. YES, the walnut orb weather DOES bite but it depends where you are bitten. I've had spiders try to bite my hands before and were unsuccessful due to my thick skin but I've been bitten on the back of the neck and wrist and both left slight swelling and itching (similar to a bite from a midge or equivalent blood sucker).
ReplyDeleteThere's no point in moving the spider because whether you like it or not, spiderlings will land on your washing regardless of their hatching site. Many garden spiders float on the breeze in the hope of finding a nice high spot to set up home. Spiderlings are COMPLETELY harmless and couldn't pierce the skin of a medium sized fly let alone a human being. If one managed to set up camp in your clothes, it would most probably be killed when you put it on and you would never know it was there. Quite sad really when you think of a tiny life being so irrelevant.
Not sure I agree at all in regards to this beast's web quality. We have a large female hiding in our greenhouse. Every evening she appears and builds her web high up by the ceiling, above the cucumbers. One evening I was trying to pick a cucumber and realised she had attached one of her guide ropes to the leaf directly in front of me. I picked up a stick of bamboo and attempted to snap it. No deal. The web is like a strong of blimmin' steel! I exaggerate obviously, but it is one of the strongest webs I've ever come across. We actually had another female in the same greenhouse beforehand also, and I managed to catch her in her web as she was hanging out right across the doorway one evening. Catching her through the web was literally like snapping through cotton threads. I could feel and hear the strength of it as it snapped. It's strong stuff and I would HATE to walk in to one. I suspect they disassemble it in the day as, because they are pretty large, strong webs, they would often get in the way of things like people, birds and such and the spider is just being very thoughtful and tidying up after herself. That said "dissemble" is a stretch - she usually leaves half of it still there in a tattered mess!
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