They're back. You know, there are some creatures that give me the creeps but spiders aren't one of them. These black-and-yellow Argiopes inhabit our pasture and prey on flies, mosquitoes and other pesky insects. This particular one has taken up residence right beside our main pasture gate.In the late summer, the female lays her eggs in a sac covered with a tough, brown, papery cover. Then she dies. The baby spiders hatch in autumn and overwinter in the sac, emerging in spring. This spring I saw hundreds of these sacs in our pasture each with hundreds of baby spiders for a grand total of... lots and lots of spiders.
Here's an interesting bit of trivia: Apparently, spider web material is insulative because we have one of these Argiopes in our pasture that built its web between an electric fence wire and the ground. If the web was a conductor, I don't think the spider would have stuck around.
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