When Not So Itsy Bitsy

text & photos : Norma A. Hubbard – October 2023

Anyone who has grown up around barns knows spiders. Our barn was full of fat grey spiders. Sadly, it was a time when everyone used DDT (now a banned insecticide). I can still hear the thud those spiders made when they hit the floor after being poisoned. On the other hand, I still get chills thinking about the many times webs or spiders got caught in my hair. Yuck. Never a pleasant experience for me or the spiders. Today while I understand the value of spiders, I am still not a fan; in fact, I had a difficult time even researching spiders without shuddering a few times.

Unfortunately, there are less and less spiders. While we don’t spray DDT anymore, there are still too many pesticides in use. There are thousands of spiders in the world and Quebec has its fair share of spiders. Some common spiders in our area are Wolf spiders (Lycosidae); Grass spiders (Agelenopsis) often called funnel spiders; Fishing spiders (Dolomedes) also known as wharf spiders, raft spiders, or dock spiders; Black and Yellow Garden Spiders (Argiope aurantia) also called writer spiders due to its zig zag web pattern; and Furrow spiders or Furrow Orb spiders (Larinioides cornutus). Interesting to note Cellar spiders (Pholcidae) which are spiders found in cellars, are often mistakenly called Daddy Longlegs or Harvestmen (Opiliones), which are not spiders. So, what makes a spider a spider?

Spiders, the largest order of the arachnid family, come in various colours and sizes, but all have eight jointed legs, a segmented body, an exoskeleton, and four pairs of eyes. In addition, most spiders have spinnerets on their backs to spin silk, and they have venomous fangs (not teeth, they don’t chew). Spiders use venom to liquefy their prey in order to ‘drink’ their food. A spider’s diet is beneficial to us, as it eats bugs that are annoying such as mosquitoes, gnats, flies, aphids, and even other spiders. Spiders need water, which explains why we often find them in and around our sinks. Some spiders can go up to 60 days without food!

There are three stages to a spider’s life cycle: egg, spiderling, and adult. When it comes to courtship, females are the dominant ones. Females are usually larger and more dangerous than males, and some females will kill and eat males after mating. Females store the sperm until they are ready to lay their eggs. A female makes an egg sac that contains hundreds to even thousands of eggs which will hatch in a few weeks. She will protect the sac until the eggs hatch. Spiderlings look like their parents, only smaller. Depending on the species, spiderlings will molt or shed their exoskeletons 5 to 10 times as they grow into an adult. Spiders only live about a year or two, with the oldest female tarantula on record living 20 years.

I think my spider is European Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus), also known as the Cross Spider, Diadem Spider, Orangie, Pumpkin Spider, and Crowned Orb Weaver. As you may have noticed, spiders seem to have lots of names for such tiny creatures, and it is difficult to identify them. My spider could also be a missing sector orb weaver (Zygiella x-notata), or a furrow orb weaver (Larinioides cornutus). One of the ways to help identify spiders is by their webs, which is partly why my spider might be a garden spider. Their first web is usually perfect, however as time goes on their webs become very messy and lack form. This web was sloppy, plus garden spiders tend to stay in the middle of the web, head facing downwards, as they wait for prey, and I found my spider in this position. Although there are other spiders that hang around the middle of their webs, most spiders hide at the edge of the web, and wait for a tug indicating there is trapped prey on the web. Wolf spiders don’t use webs, they chase and catch their prey like little wolves!

If you are like me, you might prefer an earlier version of the Spider Song from 1910 that opens with “Oh, the blooming, bloody spider went up the spider web”, and even after being washed away by rain, that “… blooming, bloody spider came up the web again”. Regardless of what you think of spiders, they are tough little creatures.

Sources [online]: Common Spiders in Quebec, Birdwatching Headquarters; Itsy, Bitsy Spider, Wikipedia; Spider Life Cycle, Learn about Nature