Mystery Solved!
Argiope Aurantia!
If anyone remembers the crazy picture I put up of the mystery item I found in my house-bound Croton, I finally have an answer for you! This beautiful black and yellow garden spider is what layed that fabulous egg sack. I got a hold of one of the Entomology professors at the Ohio State University. He took a look at my pictures and immediately recognized it as the egg case of the common black and yellow garden spider, Argiope Aurantia. I was really excited when he told me this. That’s what I was hoping it was.
I was also really glad I didn’t bring it inside.
These spiders are harmless, even if they bite. The females are the brightly colored of the two sexes, with the male looking similar in shape, but being much smaller, and a drab brown. The females get pretty big. I found one walking around in my garden a few weeks ago. The one I saw was almost two inches across, with her legs out as she walked. She was beautiful, with black and yellow striped legs, and a yellow spotted black abdomen. The cephalothorax (the front body section, with the eyes, mouth and legs attached to it), is white.
These spiders build a web every morning, and every night they tear it down and eat it! It’s thought that they get nutrients from the web. When you see those beautiful webs with a spiral design on them, it’s an argiope aurantia web. They like to make zigzag designs in their webs, which has earned them the nickname “writing spiders”. Maybe these zigzags stabilize their web, or possibly make them more visible to birds so they don’t fly through and ruin them.
I’m glad to have a backyard that is able to support a healthy habitat for different species. I took the egg sack out of the plant VERY CAREFULLY. I didn’t want to tear it. For several reasons. I actually had to use a knife to cut through the silk because it was so strong I couldn’t tear it. The “Bug Doc” as he’s known, told me that if steel and spider’s silk were spun into a strand of the same thickness, the spider’s silk would be stronger!
I put the sack in a dish of cotton balls and put it out in the garage. It’s a drafty, detached garage that just serves as a garden shed. if you ask me, it’s a good place to house helpful spiders. If the sack hatches, and the spiders populate my yard, I might not have such a bad mosquito problem next year.
I also found this same spider in my garden this evening I live in New Brunswick , Canada and have never seen one around here before.. Do you know if they are common in this area.
we have 3 of these spiders on our farm, at first we thought they were poisonious because it is colorful. there is one female and she has 1 egg sack and it looks like she is getting realy big again. i was wondering how many times they reproduce in their life time and how long do they live?
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
I have never seen a spider this large in my yard. It is beautiful with its bright yellow, black and white colors. I tried to take a picture but I refuse to get too close. It has its web attached to my house and a bush in front of the house.
is this spider dagnerous???
My husband found this spider and web attached to a large coneflower plant. We have never seen one in our yard before and have been here since 1972. We live in southeast Wisconsin. We will watch to see what happens to the web.
They are most certainly NOT dangerous
Some specimens can get quite large, but they are colorful and shy. Most will be too busy building their webs and watching their egg cases to even notice a curious person. They are very good mothers, actually. They lay an egg case in the Fall. The egg case can withstand the Winter, but the adult spider cannot. Mama spider will stay with her egg case and guard it until she dies.
I have a lot of family in that part of Wisconsin! I love it there!
This spider will protect your plant from pests, and her web will be a beautiful addition to your garden. Keep an eye out for zigzags in the web. No one knows for sure why they put them there. If you remember, check her out after the rain, or early in the morning when the dew is still there. I think that’s when spider’s webs are the prettiest.
I believe they only live one year, and at the end of the warm season, the female lays an egg case which then survives the Winter. I’m not sure if they can live a second year or not. Maybe if they can find a warm place to spend the Winter. I’ll have to ask my Entomology professor. They are not poisonous. They have venom (all spiders do), but they wouldn’t make you sick or give you a rash or anything if they were to bite you. These spiders are pretty shy. I handled one once, and it didn’t bite me. I looked into my overflowing rain barrel, and a big one had fallen in and was drowning, so I scooped her up, and put her in a sunny place to dry off. I went and looked for her the next day, and she had built a really pretty web
The females are brightly colored and get big, the males are brown and drab and small. They look like two different kinds of spiders. So if you have three black and yellow ones, you have three females. Sometimes, if you look carefully, you can find a male hanging out on the edge of a female’s web.
Just saw one of these spiders at the side of my deck, just above a sedum plant. Have never seen a spider like this before, so pulled up on google and there it was. WOW..Did notice the spider web looked so different, and thanks for the explanation of this amazing critter…. Ontario, Canada
i was 2inches away from a spider that looked just like this one and it scared me my dad carefully put the spider in a container me and my dad thought it was very poisoness so we didnt touch it.
i found this spider attached to my house and bush in bear, delaware! its huge!
Just found this spider on the side of my back porch. I live in Westport Massachusetts since 1974 and this is the first time seeing this type of spider. I’m having work done on my home and wondered is there a way to remove her safely before some worker sees her and harms/kills her? Thank you.