Spider-mom

A few days ago I was in the back of the house where I have a few large closets that have been turned into a pantry/storage area. There are 3 doors. One to enter the pantry from the inside of the house. One to enter from the east side of the deck. One to enter from the west deck/garage. The later door is never used. There's stuff piled up against it. There's just no need to go from the garage to the back of the house. Good thing.

Each door has 9 glass panels on the top half of the door to allow for a view to the woods. Very pretty. I always see birds, wild turkeys, squirrels, etc. running around. Most enjoyable.

As always, I looked out the window while I was in the pantry and something didn't look right. I realized there was a LARGE spider at about eye level maybe a foot away from the door. It was sitting in the middle of a very LARGE web. The web was built across the entire door, proabably 3 feet in diameter. The spider itself is about an inch and a half long with the most fascinating coloration. It looks like tortoise shell.

Below the large spider off to one side is a tiny little spider next to an egg sac (at least that's what I think it is). If I remember correctly, it's probably the male who's guarding the eggs and the female is doing the hunting (so far he's safe). I did some research and was not able to identify the spider. I guess there are around 50,000 different spiders..hmmm...maybe it's a garden spider?

Since it's outside and not up against a door I use, the spider is left to do her own thing. I've been checking up on her a few times a day. Mostly she just hangs there upside down, in the center of the web.

Last night I put a light on outside to attract bugs. She hadn't been catching anything for days and even though I should consider the bugs, I thought I would help out. I guess it helped. I noticed a few small "buds" on the web. I realized they must be captured insects. Eeek. She wasn't done.

I watched her as she wrapped up another tiny bug-victim, I saw the little coccoon wiggling a bit. I started feeling rather guilty, thinking about the end of the movie The FLY and all those nature programs where they show the spider capturing some helpless moth. She's gotta eat, too.

Suddenly, she FLEW across the web and started to stitch it back up. It was amazing to watch.

This morning, all the little insect-pods were gone. I'm guessing the spiders had a good meal. The web looks a bit tattered. I wonder if they are growing tired and old and if their time is coming or if they will burrow in the ground and try to get through the winter? (I read about spiders doing that, too). I also wondered about death. They don't know they're going to die soon-probably when the first frost of autumn arrives; if something doesn't get them sooner. I wonder how I would live my life if I didn't know I was going to die?

Before they go to the arachnid-beyond, their offspring have to be born. Only 1 or 2 of their future offspring (after hatching 500-1000!!!!!!) will make it to maturity. EEEEEK. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to witness this part.

I know many folks would just bug spray this whole thing down, but I just can't do that.

It's weird. I really don't care for spiders. This one is rather big and creepy and looks a bit like a crab. Somehow, I can't help but root them on and hope they'll have a good life attached to my back door.