Spider webs by Japanese quince September 2020

Spidery Sunday

September was spider month. I couldn’t walk around the garden without crashing through webs or strands.

Spider web September 2020

On damp days, there was a veritable bonanza of webs, rendered visible by the drops of water clinging to them.

Spider web and hydrangea foliage

I think the spiders responsible for these creations are of the orb-weaver type. They’re yellow-brown, with stripy legs. Most of the time they hang out in the middle of their webs, waiting for victims.

Hanging out
Web of Orb-Weaver Spider in Japanese Quince September 2020

Sometimes, the “victim” is me, in which case no one is happy.

Otherwise, the garden has taken on its autumn wardrobe.

Light purple asters
Aster, variety unknown. It showed up here years ago and has made itself at home.
The usual autumn scene of the bench near the pond with Chinese witch hazel and hostas
I take a photo of this scene every year and never tire of it. Hostas and hellebores in pots near the bench made of a cedar stump, and the Chinese witch hazel taking on its fall colours.

Photos taken on September 17th, 2020, except for the rather out of focus spider close-up, which is from 2011

43 comments

      1. I don’t even clean the ones off of my wing mirrors on the car (She says she likes them anyway, the spiders are company).
        Yes, August and September were really…interesting…subsumed in the world of ‘Vol III’….It may not be sellable but heck! I am pleased. Nearly completed.

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    1. They are. I used to be terrified of spiders and insects, but I’ve changed for the better. I don’t really like getting cozy with them, though. Thanks for your comment, JeanMarie!

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    1. That’s true. There are some huge black ones in the basement that I prefer not to see or think about, even though I understand they eat other bugs. The things that go on right under our noses…

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  9. Your photos are beautiful. Aren’t spiders master weavers? I love spiders. They eat the bugs I don’t like!

    We have both red and yellow orbweavers. The red ones hang out in the back trees. The yellow ones in our front bushes. We also have black widows who like corner things, like the little corner between the downspout and the brick. I just leave those gals alone! Then there’s the sewing machine spider out front, big and yellow-and-black with a vertical zigzag stitch up the middle of the web.

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    1. Wow, Priscilla–you’re really familiar with your local spiders! I’ve noticed those little zigzag things in the middle of the webs here too. Spiders are interesting creatures, although I prefer to observe them from a bit of a distance.

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    1. I just leave them alone to do their thing. There was actually one of those orb-weavers in the kitchen, with a web in a corner near the ceiling. I’ve never seen one of them inside and didn’t think it had much of a future here so I took it out to the tomato plants and wished it well.

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  12. Attercop, attercop, knob-body, knob-body… Can’t catch me if’n you can’t see me.

    I suspect Rowling got her spider idea from Tolkien. When I went to remember the name she gave it, Aragog, I find that, to my incredulous chagrin, real spiders have been named for characters in her books…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycosa_aragogi
    and
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eriovixia_gryffindori

    Sheesh. We’ll never be free of that woman’s influence now.

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    1. Huh–didn’t know that about Rowling naming spiders and science taking that up. I guess thinking up new species names is tough. I haven’t read enough HP to relate. Tolkien had a thing about spiders, didn’t he?

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  13. Great photos of the water droplets clinging to the webs.
    I know when I walk up the garden path to the shed, I have to take a big broom with me, waving it about, to make sure I don’t become ‘webbed’…. 🕸️🕷️🕸️
    I don’t like spiders at all 😕
    x

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  14. Great post and photos! Our deck and gardens are also home to many web-weavers. The intricacy of the construction their webs is really quite a marvel. I quite enjoy watching them grow over time. I let let them be unless they build a web across a direct path and then I try to re-direct them to set up shop in out of the way locations, but they can be quite stubborn when they find a good location to set up their traps.

    Can’t remember who penned it but here’s an old, well-known old expression that comes to mind: “Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly.”

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    1. I avoid their parlors when I see them. There seem to be way more spider this year. I was astonished to see about 6 webs in a Japanese quince at the top of my back fence. (Shown in the post’s feature image.) Thanks for your comment, John!

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  15. The little spiders in the corners of my bathroom aren’t quite the web-artist yours are, but I guess they make a living anyway. And thank you for your generous review of my book.

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    1. You’re welcome, Chuck! There are house spiders and outside spiders. And maybe ones who live in both places. There are certainly a lot of different kinds, with different types of webs. I’m re-reading A Summer in Amber right now, and enjoying it.

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      1. I was watching one of my spiders while I was brushing my teeth last night. It was so tiny, head of a pin size, that I can’t imagine what it hoped to capture on its invisible web. And how it would handle it if something ever did find the web, because I can’t imagine a smaller insect.

        I have a couple of blog post were I talk about what the heck I was thinking about when I wrote Some Day Days, and A Summer in Amber, if you’re ever curious.

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        1. Maybe the tiny spiders catch dust mites or some other minute life forms.
          I had a look at the background info on A Summer in Amber on your blog. Helpful and interesting, especially the maps!

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