Spider Web Basics
Different spiders weave different types of webs. Spiders can get caught in spiderwebs, sometimes even their own webs! However, you won’t see it very often because they’re careful with their feet. The tips of a spider’s legs are oily. That helps keep them from getting stuck on their sticky webbing. Also, a spider’s web has two different kinds of silk on it. One kind is sticky and one is not. The spider avoids walking on the sticky webbing.
Take time to observe how your spider goes about making its web. After the web is formed, take note of what types of insects become trapped in the web, and watch how the spider handles the trapped insects.
After a night’s use, a spider’s web may become damaged. The spider then removes the silk in the morning, leaving only the first bridge line. Sometimes they eat their old webs to conserve silk and to make use of the nutrients of any tiny insects caught in the web. After a daytime rest, the spider constructs a new web in the evening. If the spider’s catch was low and the web was not heavily damaged, the spider may reuse the web after making repairs. You may find one of the following types of webs in your Garden Spider Web Frame™. But remember, like snowflakes, no two spider webs are ever the same!
Triangle Web
Triangle webs are three-sided. Spiders that weave triangle-shaped webs wait for their prey at one end of their web. When an insect contacts the web, the spider shakes the strands to better catch the insect.
Orb Web
Orb-web weaving spiders do not have sharp vision. However, they can build beautiful and complicated webs. These spiders weave their round webs in open areas. Threads of dry silk extend from an orb web’s center like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Lines of sticky silk connect the spokes, and serve to trap insects. The spiders discover food by feeling vibrations in their webs. Orb-weavers cut any inedible debris or insects out of the web with their fangs and drop them to the ground. Orb-weavers include the argiope, garden spiders, orchard spiders, and wolf spiders.
Some orb weavers lie and wait for their prey in the center of the web. Others attach a trap line to the center of the web and then hide in a nest near the web, and hold on to the trap line. When an insect lands in the web, the line vibrates. These vibrations act as a signal to the spider to dart out and capture the insect.
Sheet Web
If you live near woods, there’s a good chance that you’ll see one of these hammock-like webs in your Garden Spider Web Frame™. Sheet-web weavers spin thin sheets of silk between blades of grass or branches of shrubs or trees. These spiders also spin a net of crisscrossed threads above the sheet web. When a flying insect hits the net, it bounces into the sheet section. Often, an insect will fly directly into the sheet. The spider, waiting beneath the web, quickly runs to the insect and pulls it through the webbing. Sheet webs last a long time because the sheet is thick, and when the spider repairs any damaged parts, the sheet gets thicker still.
Tangle Web
Tangle-web weavers spin the simplest and most disorganized-looking type of web. Tangle webs are made of a jumble of threads attached to support lines. These webs look messy, but they’re effective for catching unsuspecting insects – perhaps because they don’t look like a spider’s web!
Many types of garden spiders, including the poisonous Black Widow spider, make tangled webs, usually in dark places. If a tangled-web weaver takes up residence in your Garden Spider Web Frame™, be extra careful when inspecting your spider’s web!
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Setting Up Your Garden Spider Web Frame™
1. Insert the wooden dowel into the base of the frame. Be sure to push it in as far as it will go (figure 1).
2. Locate an area in your garden that is both quiet and near bushes, flowers, hedges or other natural landscaping. The best spider spots are protected from exposure to the elements. A shady area protected from strong wind is preferable. Spiders are more content and active when the surroundings are peaceful. Search for an area where you have seen spiders and/or spider webs in the past.
3. After you’ve decided where to place the frame, carefully push the dowel into the ground so that it penetrates into the soil at least 6 inches (figure 2). If the ground is hard, water the area to soften it up a bit. This will make it easier for you to push the frame’s post into the soil.
4. Now watch and wait for a spider to visit and begin spinning her web. This may take some time. If you don’t have a visitor within a couple of weeks, move the frame to a different spidery spot. Cold weather may effect the spiders in your area, so be patient during chilly seasons of the year.
While Waiting For Your Spider To Move In
1. Learn all you can about spiders. Go online and search for fun spider-related websites. It’s amazing what you’ll discover. Of course, you can always learn about spiders in the Insect Lorepedia at www.insectlore.com.
2. Go to a bookstore and check out the Nature section. See if you can find a book about spiders. This will help you to identify any spider that may take up residence in your Garden Spider Web Frame™.
3. If you have a college or university nearby, contact the Department of Entomology. They may have someone on staff who can tell you more about spiders.
4. Check with a Natural History museum in your area and see if there are any exhibits on spiders.
5. Take a few minutes, and without looking at any pictures, draw what you think your garden spider’s web will look like. Will it hang from a corner of the Garden Spider Web Frame™ and be angle-shaped? Or will it cover the entire center of the frame and be more circular? Keep your drawing and compare it to your spider’s actual web, and notice the differences and similarities between the two.
A Bit About Spiders
Spiders are arachnids, not insects. Insects have three body parts and six legs. Spiders have eight legs and two body parts. The abdomen is the rearmost of the spider’s two body parts, while the prosoma, or cephalothorax, is composed of both the spider’s head and thorax. Many insects have wings and antennae; spiders never have either. Spiders have a hard exoskeleton that covers the outside of their bodies. Spiders don’t have noses. They breathe through trachae on the underside of their abdomen.
There are two basic types of spiders: web builders and wandering spiders. Some live underground in tunnels, in the water or on plants. Most spiders are beneficial creatures, which means that they are our friends. Spiders are helpful to people because they eat harmful insects. Spiders can eat grasshoppers and locusts, which destroy plants and crops. They also eat flies and mosquitoes, which besides giving painful bites and being a nuisance, can also carry diseases. Although spiders feed mostly on insects, some spiders capture and eat tadpoles, small frogs, small fish, and mice.
Most spiders have eight eyes. Some have two, four, six, or even 12 eyes. Spiders’ eyes are singular and are called ocelli, unlike the compound eyes found on many insects. The main pair of eyes is always the spider’s middle pair, and this pair has a different construction than the lesser eyes. The main eyes are used for focusing on prey. The other eyes detect movement well, and allow the spider to have a very broad range of vision.
The spider’s mouth parts are called chelicera, and they’re found below the spider’s eyes. All spiders have fangs, through which venom is ejected. Spider bites can be quite painful, and a select few can be fatal. Spiders eat by sucking up the liquid in the body of the prey. Only a few types of spiders are poisonous to humans.
Spiders have silk spinning glands called spinnerets at the rear of their abdomens. Spider silk is a thick liquid that hardens as soon as it is pulled out of the spinnerets. Your garden spider may use his or her silk for other purposes than building a web in your Garden Spider Web Frame™. While spiders construct their webs and snares from silk, they also use silk to catch prey, store food, escape from danger, make egg sacs, wrap themselves to survive cold winters, send and receive vibrating signals, truss up prey for storage, or for transportation in the form of silken ropes, parachutes or balloons – often powered by the wind. This special way of traveling is called ballooning, when spiderlings float through the air on a strand of silk.
Spider silk can be five times stronger than steel, and may be stretched as much as one-fourth its length before breaking! The silk of Nephila spiders is the strongest natural fiber known, and South Sea Islanders use the silk of these spiders to make tote bags and fish nets.
Usually, female spiders are bigger than male spiders. Female spiders are dutiful mothers and are often seen tending their egg sacs – which can contain up to 300 spiderlings or more. All spiders hatch from eggs which are protected in the egg sac. Spiders molt, or shed their skin, occasionally as they grow. After the first molt the young spiders are totally independent from their mothers.
Warning! Never pick up a spider without talking with an adult. Some spiders are poisonous and can hurt you.
 Did your spider spin a fabulous web in your Garden Spider Web Frame™, and you’d like to share it with others?
Email your digital image to me, Doctor Entomology, at doctorE@insectlore.com. If we post your web to our web gallery, we’ll thank you by sending you one of our great live Insect Lore insect kits!
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