LOOK OUT!!!
You walk into one of these webs with a spider this big you'll know it! What a beautiful spider too. Just look at her. I was truly blessed to find her while I was cutting the grass with the hedge weed eater the other day. This spider looks scary as Hell but they are harmless.
She was big! I say "she" because only the females get this big. In fact, in the spider kingdom, the males are tiny compared to the females. Like maybe 1/4th their size. My hand in this picture shows you just how big she is. I'm still about a foot and a half away or so making her look smaller but her leg span was almost as big as my hand. And I have big hands!
It looks like she has alien heads on her back HA HA. The Latin name of these spiders is Argiope aurantia or "gilded silver face" because it looks like they have alien faces on their backs.
The Garden Spider is in the Orb Weaver family. In fact I mistaken this spider calling it a Golden Orb Weaver. But they are cousins. They are sometimes called zig zag spiders due to the thick zig zag pattern in the middle of their webs. It's cousin, the Golden Orb Weaver is often called the Banana Spider due to having a long skinny yellow abdomen (not to be confused with the actual Banana Spider from South America that is deadly to humans).
Fun Fact: The silk web produced by these spiders is stronger than steel!
I like to think of these spiders as the grand architects among the spider kingdom. They can build massive webs. Their webs are so strong they sometimes catch small birds, snakes, and even bats. Which they will feed on if caught. Some cultures around the world will use their webs to make fishing lines. If the web was as thick as a tooth pick it would be strong enough to ensnare one of us. If the web was as thick as a pencil it would be strong enough to stop a 747 plane flying at full speed!!! Think about that next time you come across one of these.
Thanks to these spiders there are billions and billions less flies and mosquitoes. You think mosquitoes are bad, imagine how many more mosquitoes we would have in the world if these spiders didn't exist.
A good way to keep unwanted visitors out of your yard and off your property is to make sure you have a bunch of these around your house and garden. That's one annoying neighbor that won't be coming around bothering you anymore HA HA.
Thanks for looking and I hope you liked my spider :-).
I'm Theo aka Rainbow Man and here is the PROOF!!!
PROOF of yellow and black Garden Spider.
Stay Un-Tune-Ed...
Love the reference about the thickness and how the strength would multiply with it. Spider Man was my fave superhero growing up.
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Damn that's insane.
The spider is still there and hasn't moved. I'm planning on making another follow up spider blog because I need to relocate her. She made her web by the car and needs to move. Now that I got a section of the garden area cleared out I'm planning on relocating her to the garden in hopes she will make a new web there. I'm planning on making a video because I've never handled one of these spiders before. I always found them to be scary as Hell so I've always left them alone until now HA HA. Face your fears or remain chained by them.