Wildlife

With over a million different kinds, insects represent the most numerous of all life forms on earth. I grateful the Creator gave them exoskeletons to lug around and considerably limit their size. Had they endoskeletons like us, we’d be impossibly outnumbered, tripping over ants, swatting mosquitoes with baseball bats, and Orkin exterminators would be packing, wearing Kevlar vests.

I’m appreciate all insect predators . . . colorful birds, furry anteaters, slimy frogs, even spooky bats to assist keeping the ever-burgeoning insect population in check . . . but wonder why God saw fit add scary spiders to help keep insects from ‘bugging’ us 😊

This morning, a Garden Spider gained a modicum of my respect. The intricate, geometrically designed web this little 8-legged architect had constructed altered my perspective of these creepy creatures. Patiently waiting to ambush and chow down on some savory insect, I realized this tiny guy (girl?) is actually my ally, possibly sparing me a future mosquito bite 😍

Sooooo . . . with that renewed mindset, here’s a ½ dozen Spider Stats to lend a favorable ‘spin’ for any arachnophobes out there, with one caveat . . . spiders still can bite Ya’ 😫

1. Webs of Steel – for size, the silk strands of a spider’s web are far stronger than steel!
2. Custom Designing – Most spiders have 3 spinnerets that extrude silk which dries when exposed to the air as they build their webs. Some have up to 8 spinnerets for different thread sizes. The spider controls the thread’s thickness, texture, and adhesiveness as it’s drawn from the spinnerets depending on the thread’s intended purpose.
3. Web Recycling – each night the spider eats most of its web, leaving the primary frame to re-weave a new circular web each morning. It’s believed spiders eat their webs to recycle nutrients and consume small food particles . . . Yummy! 🤪
4. Here’s Looking at You – most spiders have eight eyes. However, some species have six, four, two, or even no eyes. Even within a single species, the number of eyes may vary, but it’s always an even number.
5. Cautious Courtship – at breeding time the male carefully ventures into the female’s nest, and then plucks the strands of her web to entice her. Before mating, he drops a safety web so that he can escape should he ‘strike a wrong note’, and she decides to cannibalize him 😲
6. Venomous, but not Dangerous – like most spiders, Garden Spiders have venom to incapacitate their prey. However, their venom is not harmful humans.

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”

Cecil Frances Alexander