Spiders and their webs...

[Deluded]

I'm curious.

I looked out of my bedroom window this morning and noticed that a spider had spun a web from my Sky dish mast, across to our phone line, about 3-4 metres, through mid air.

How the fk do they do that?

The same this morning when I took the dogs out for a walk. I must have been the first person to walk along the path I take this morning as I walked through atleast 20 webs, all spanning gaps of around 3-4 metres, atleast 5ft up in the air!

Edited by Deluded on Tuesday 22 September 09:13

[Scraggles]

got one that loves to put a web over my door frame, it gets removed

the one from the bin to the tall bush gets removed every few weeks

the huge one over the window can stay there

[evenflow]

Helicopters.

[Ray Singh]

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

[Jonny671]

Little bds, I hate them.

I need to get rid of the one from my wing mirror.

[Digger]

Jonny671 said:

Little bds, I hate them.

I need to get rid of the one from my wing mirror.

Dont bother. You'll never find it.

[captainzep]

Jonny671 said:

Little bds, I hate them.

I need to get rid of the one from my wing mirror.

But spiders are the goodies because they catch flies, -flies being the baddies.

I can therefore only assume Jonny, that you are also a baddie. Which means you can't come to tea. We were having sausages too...

[Sleekitman]

David Attenborough told me they used crossbows.

[CedGTV]

What is it about spiders and wing mirrors, surely they can't catch that many flies from behind the mirror going along.

[Marf]

Ray Singh said:

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

Don't need much of a breeze to carry something that weighs a couple of grams

[st_files]

Marf said:

Ray Singh said:

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

Don't need much of a breeze to carry something that weighs a couple of grams

More like a couple of hundreths of a gramme....amazing creatures. Got a whopper in the front garden, its body about the size of my thumbnail

[Penny-lope]

st_files said:

Marf said:

Ray Singh said:

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

Don't need much of a breeze to carry something that weighs a couple of grams

More like a couple of hundreths of a gramme....amazing creatures. Got a whopper in the front garden, its body about the size of my thumbnail

I was just about to say....'what size of spiders do you have, if they weigh a couple of grams?'

[Marf]

Penny-lope said:

st_files said:

Marf said:

Ray Singh said:

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

Don't need much of a breeze to carry something that weighs a couple of grams

More like a couple of hundreths of a gramme....amazing creatures. Got a whopper in the front garden, its body about the size of my thumbnail

I was just about to say....'what size of spiders do you have, if they weigh a couple of grams?'

Slight overestimate there

Though, would a fully grown garden spider or house spider really only weigh less than a gram? Surely not?

[War Pig]

Digger said:

Jonny671 said:

Little bds, I hate them.

I need to get rid of the one from my wing mirror.

Dont bother. You'll never find it.

I finally got the one hiding in mine the other day

[G_T]

Digger said:

Jonny671 said:

Little bds, I hate them.

I need to get rid of the one from my wing mirror.

Dont bother. You'll never find it.

The last 3 times I have washed my car I have tried to de-spider my wing mirrors to no avail. Cannot get rid of the little bds.

I call the one on the left mirror Tony and the right Gordon.

[XMES RUS]

I've been feeding a spider outside my front door with flies caught from one of these.




It's still alive after 3 weeks, I clearly have way to much time.

Edited by XMES RUS on Tuesday 22 September 10:27

[st_files]

Marf said:

Penny-lope said:

st_files said:

Marf said:

Ray Singh said:

Apparently - they use the wind to cast the first thread across the span....

I don't believe it as it wasn't that windy.

Don't need much of a breeze to carry something that weighs a couple of grams

More like a couple of hundreths of a gramme....amazing creatures. Got a whopper in the front garden, its body about the size of my thumbnail

I was just about to say....'what size of spiders do you have, if they weigh a couple of grams?'

Slight overestimate there

Though, would a fully grown garden spider or house spider really only weigh less than a gram? Surely not?

Not the spider but its web material - they spin it out into the sightest breeze and it then drifts across a few metres and sticks to an object, they then have a bridge upon which they can start making their web proper.

[Art_Vandelay]

I highly recommend the BBC documentary series Life in the Undergrowth. David Attenborough looks at the various insects in different environments and how they're adapted.

The spider section shows how varied their use of silk is. Excellent series and some superb slow motion captures. Only wish I had it in HD now

Edit to add link http://www.amazon.com/Life-Undergrowth-David-Atten... Includes a few clips from it.

Edited by Art_Vandelay on Tuesday 22 September 10:52

[Slate99]

XMES RUS said:

I've been feeding a spider outside my front door with flies caught from one of these.




It's still alive after 3 weeks, I clearly have way to much time.

Edited by XMES RUS on Tuesday 22 September 10:27

I thought it was just me

I've been feeding one all summer - It's HUUGE and most possibly pregnant. It lives happily on the kitchen window.

[jerwatt]

Another way is that they use the silk as parachutes, letting it get caught in the wind, and float along with it. I think that might only be the case with the babies in the UK though...