Jewel Spiders in September

I had these water two water barrels. I had decided to give one of my water barrels to my neighbour. I invited him over to see the barrel which I fully intended to give him. Then, I saw our blond Jewel, then a mid to large size spider. I stepped myself backward through the offer, concerned at this time of year if I pulled a spider from her web, she might not have the resources to rebuild. The larger the back on the spider, the harder it is to keep herself fed. I don't know if I seemed rude to my poor neighbour. I still intended to give him the water barrel, but I thought I better wait till the spider was done using it.

Then, my husband was out doing yard maintenance. He too moved the barrel. He had not seen the spider when he moved it and found her afterwards. He brought her on the end of a stick to show me her immense size. My cousin was with me at that moment. He pushed me into the spider. I was pretty mad, since it could be a 2 week recovery process if I were bit. I did not take his joke very well. Then, I gave away our water barrel.

Back to the spider: We decided to move her to our rose. We set her there, and she chose to set up shop further down by the down spout. She has a massive web with 1 metre stringers. It was also attached to the faucet. My husband had to use the faucet to water the yard. He turned it on. Her web silk is extremely rubbery. The spider silk turned like a thread on a bobbin when the tap was turned on and undid when the tap was turned off. The web did not fall loose; it stretched. It never disconnected and it never broke a string.

This spider was able to rebuild her web. Sometimes, in the fall, if there are not the burst of aphids or the web is placed wrong, the spider can starve. Now that she is placed, I would not move her again. She is getting two close to the toonie size when she has to begin building her egg sack.

The aphids have had their typical mid-August, mid-September burst. We have taken damage, like we do yearly on our roses and our trees. If we had the garden in production, this often kills swiss chard, lettuce, and spinach. There also has been an abundance of sawfly which we sprayed for. (As an aside, an unhindered sawfly larva can eat a full grown blue spruce in 2 years.) The spider are more abundant this year than previous years. However, they've all chosen mostly good places to set up, so we have not minded them. The more of them, the fewer other insects we have to deal with on our plants. I don't know what the sawfly looks like, but I hope the spider gets a few.

When it drops to freezing soon, in the first few October days, the spiders will drop significantly in their activity. It is like they begin hybernating while they finish off their egg sack. Then, I would note them at that time, say my good-byes to them knowing it is soon, and then just a couple days later, the webs are all empty. Mostly, they go to the soffits of the house.

One time, a spider laid her egg sack at my front door on a plant pot. I had not formulated my spider plans at that time, and disposed of it. I felt really bad afterward, having wanted to be a mother myself, and afterall this was what she had been working for all year. I decided after that mistake to move egg sacks if required, and to not interfere with the new spider production. I also did research which proved to me that by having egg sacks on my home, this would not increase the number of spiders persay around my home. Most of the spider babies fly away on spider silk for kilometres.

Were one hoping to assist a spider get their prey in the fall, all that is required is to turn on a light or create a light source near them. They are naturally attracted to light sources, as this increases their chance of getting prey. If you have spiders attracted to your door, consider the light sources around it. How you use your light and how much light you let escape from windows direct spiders where to set up homes outside your house.