Chelsea, my black and yellow Orb Weaver, is nearing the end of her life cycle. She is losing color, is lethargic and looks....skinnier? I know she is nearing death. She has added a second egg case to the first she laid. Both are on the sides of my dolly that doubles to hold a trash bag for my garden rakings. I haven't been using it since she took up residence. I was hoping the eggs would hatch and I could get it back to finish filling the bag and then use the dolly to move my St. Francis statue back to Caesar's garden after the painters moved it (and didn't move it back.) Well, I've been reading up on the life cycle of the orb weaver this morning and sure enough, Chelsea's days are numbered. But her egg sacs won't hatch until spring. Is there any way I can relocate them off of my trash dolly without harming them? And where would be a good location? I can put them on various plants in the garden, sun, shade, whatever. But I want to make sure they aren't predated by anything. Does anything eat spider egg sacs? I need some guidance as I don't want to lose her egg sacs after she's given her life for them. But they really have to be moved from their present location.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 15 2007, 02:38 PM) [snapback]513073[/snapback]</div> I have been pretty successful in moving bits of branches with praying mantis egg cases into some sheltered shrubs on a protected side of the house. Compact glossy abelia are great for that. Pretty spiders, and this is from a guy who can't stand spiders. Had this one below my mailbox a couple of weeks ago, but the lawn kid destroyed the web. Oh well. - Tom [attachmentid=11467]
Protected side would be...I guess the north side. It gets shade most of the day. I have only Italian Cypress there. I do have a few plants on the north side of the south fence. Perhaps I should move one egg case to each spot and hope for the best? Should I shelter it under something so it doesn't get wet if it rains? They're not very sheltered from rain where they are now.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Sep 15 2007, 06:15 PM) [snapback]513126[/snapback]</div> I consider "sheltered" in the sense of protected from winds and driving rain. For my location, the Compact Abelia on the south side of the house under the eaves is sheltered. The Abelia holds its leaves through the winter and an egg case nestled inside is protected even further from wind and rain. Trying two locations sounds like a good idea to me. The praying mantis egg cases were found when doing pruning and survived very well - I had hords of tiny baby mantises the next spring on that side of the house. I expect your spiders will do equally well. I haven't noticed anything going after the spider egg cases I see in my shrubs, but I suppose birds might. Shades of Charlotte's web? I was thinking of photoshopping the photo above to say "Some Car" in the web, but was too lazy. Good Luck! - Tom
Chelsea's gone. Not dead. I didnt' find her little body on the ground anywhere. But her web is gone and so is she. She must have moved on early this morning. Just as well. I'd like to remember her alive and colorful. Her two egg sacs are there so I'll be relocating them. I have a Bay Laurel under my kitchen window; I might put one there. And I'll be putting one in the Italian Cypress on the north side. They are very full and fluffy so offer protection from both wind and rain. We'll see.
You do know that an egg sack has a HUGE number of eggs, and the hatch will be thousands of very tiny spiders that slip through cracks? I would recomend relocating to a location a few feet AWAY from the house structure. You don't want hundreds of them crawling through the tiny gaps in your siding and to the inside. There will be PLENTY of spiders next year, and by locating them away from the structure, you can increase the chance they stay outside.
I don't think you need to relocate the egg sacks away from the house as I've never experienced an orb weaver inside my house, ever. If I were in your circumstance, Godiva, I'd probably relocate the egg sacks to as close proximity as where they were laid as possible. There's a reason that the spot was selected - sun, wind, rain - probably all have something to do with it. My hunch, anyway. That's sweet that you're assuming a such a stewardship role for them.
My wife and I are about to move into a house where we saw this yellow spider with a marble-sized body on one of the drains. The thing was HUGE! I wondered if it was poisonous. We also saw a near tarantula-sized spider on a nearby bike trail (it wasn't hairy like a tarantula, but it was easily as big as a smaller tarantula).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Sep 17 2007, 03:58 PM) [snapback]513893[/snapback]</div> Given your location, I would guess the second spider was a wolf spider. Was it dark colored? Not really poisonous, but they do bite. (My mom can attest to that, but she picked it up to show other people it was harmless, then gave a big yelp and flung it into the air when it bit her. Dad just shook his head when he heard about that.) Not sure about the yellow spider. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tom_06 @ Sep 15 2007, 03:39 PM) [snapback]513109[/snapback]</div> That looks like a garden spider (I think that's the common name, we see them in the prairies around Chicago as well). They get pretty big, about an inch? Some say that the zig-zag pattern they make (each one is slightly unique) has UV properties that attract insects.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Sep 17 2007, 03:58 PM) [snapback]513893[/snapback]</div> I would second the wolf spider guess. When I lived in Boulder a long time ago, we once had one show up on an inside wall with a leg radius of 3".
Wolf spider, eh? It did sort of look like this wolf spider: ...I remeber the legs being thinner, though (it was getting dark, however). As for the garden spider theory. It was maybe like this garden spider, but yellow:
We have a couple of Writing Spiders (the zigzag writing is what makes this a 'Charlotte') aka Wasp Spider. I too would leave the eggs near where they were laid. Are you sure they won't hatch this year? I thought I remembered the egg sacks hatching in the fall... oh they are not poisonous to humans.. a bite might hurt though, give then size of the spider. Ours feed mostly on grasshoppers and bees.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Sep 17 2007, 10:43 AM) [snapback]513719[/snapback]</div> These are garden spiders. They don't like being in the house. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 17 2007, 11:06 AM) [snapback]513731[/snapback]</div> The problem is there isn't anything close. She laid them on my dolly. I need to use it and don't want to risk damaging them while I use it. There are no other plants around. Both spots I'm looking at will provide some shade and some protection from wind and rain. But they can't stay where they are and there isn't anything near by to relocate them to.
