I have had to wave a stick in front of my face when I walk the dogs into the woods lately. It’s not to ward off lions, although it seems to do that, but to keep the spider webs off my face. I see big, old wolf spiders running across the driveway. They aren’t quite big enough to hunt cats yet, but I almost expect to hear their footsteps as they run. I see their eight tiny eyes glinting in the beam of my flashlight when I take the dogs for their last walk of the evening. They seem to be everywhere now.
A few days ago we discovered that a spider had woven its web right outside our front door. Of course we discovered it by running into it.
Spidey outside the door
I misted the web with our cat corrector, but it’s really hard to photograph a spiderweb with a bright background. Here it is from the other direction. Not much better here.
Watch your head
You can tell that it’s right at head height as we come out the door. I’m going to ask it to clean the boards around our front door during the day when it’s usually inactive.
Another spider recently started its web between the high posts at the end of our front walk, where we mounted the gate that was supposed to keep Zeke on the walk, but which he climbs to chase foxes. You can see the tops of the posts in the first picture. That web is high, but there are some anchor lines that run down right where we walk.
Having to pull invisible spider webs off of your face is a little annoying, but I like having the spiders around anyway.
So happy to see this. I think yours is a Neoscona, possibly N. crucifera. A relation to Charlotte. They certainly do build their webs at face level, but if you look up into the sky you’ll see them building 50-100 feet off the ground if you have trees that tall.
The other group of spiders is Micrathena, them ones of the pointy spiky bodies. They are the ones I run into most often, and I think they’re capable of giving a little nip.
As you say, I carry a branch with several twigs and sweep it ahead of me to bring down the webs before I have to wipe them off my face. If I see them ahead of time, I’ll walk around them.
It’s that time of year, here in north Georgia.
This post reminds me that I haven’t seen a spider web like this in a long time. Not sure why that is. We had Argiope aurantia quite often, now not at all. Sure wouldn’t want one hanging out in front of the doorway like this. Pretty cheeky!
I checked the web when I got home and it’s gone. I was surprised to learn that spiders will completely rebuild their webs every night. The spider was hiding up in a corner with all its legs pulled up tight so you could barely see it. I think it will come out when it gets darker. We shall see. This is a good place for a web because we leave a light on at the door for a good part of the evening.
I like having spiders around, too–most of the time, anyway. I’ve got one just outside my back door that runs and hides under a feather caught in its web every time I open the door. This spider is not rebuilding its loose, casual web each day, though.
I took some new pictures of the spider which I think I’ll post Sunday. When I looked carefully, it turns out our front-door spider is not rebuilding its web, either.