Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Today's Surprise Visitor


It's spider season! Albeit it's a little early for our first eight-legged visitors - spiders in cartons usually start arriving in September.

This one came from a worker at Dow Chemical.

While intimidating-looking, this female Marbled Orb Weaver is harmless. She (the round abdomen tells us it's a female) creates the large, circular webs that are often found in the early morning. Orb weavers are tremendously beneficial as they eat the mosquitoes and other insects that cause us grief. A yard with orb weavers, bats, and dragonflies is likely to be a pest-free zone.

If you've got a spider or any other critter you can't identify, feel free to send us a photo or, if it's not huge, bring it down. We'll be happy to take a look, give it a name and tell you all about it.

No comments: