A Visitor in the Garden
TRIGGER WARNING ARACHNOPHOBIA AHEAD
I walked out onto my porch just a little bit ago to watch a storm that was rolling through. I had noticed a large spider web the other day between one of our hanging plants and the railing. Now I personally don’t have arachnophobia myself, I don’t mind spiders at all as long as they are not crawling right on top of me. So as I walk out, I see that a large Cross Orb Weaver spider is starting to take down her web. And I lucked out this time and had my camera with me. So this is your chance to turn back if you are not a spider kind of person.
Something really interesting about this type of Orbweaver is that when they are young, almost 50% of their diet consists of pollen. The Orbweaver will actually eat it’s web when it’s time to take it down and their webs are often covered in pollen and it become another source of nutrients for them.
If you would like to read more about the Cross Orbweaver, here is a great article about them from Penn State:
Penn State Orbweaver Info