Watch for the many spider
webs you can see tucked within the grasses as you hike along. Early in the
morning, these webs frequently are decorated with morning dew. When the
sun is glinting off of these webs, they also become more obvious. The hill
to the left as you climb the steep road south out of Borges Ranch is an
excellent place to look for these webs about ten o’clock in the morning
when the sun is at the right angle. This slope contains tens of thousands
of webs that are no more than three by four inches in size. However, their
collective area trap thousands of small insects every day that might annoy
us.
The spiders sit beneath these webs and a careful examination of the space
below the web will show you the small hole that is their home. These spiders
react, as most spiders do, to the slight vibrations caused by a trapped
insect and soon that insect becomes another spider meal. The spider frequently
will not suck the juices from these insects for some time and the enveloped
mite can live for hours trapped in its silky tomb. When the spider is ready,
then you might see it snacking away on his victim.
Jerry Fritzke 6/21/03
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Spider
Webs
Click the pictures for larger images
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