Dear Spider Who Builds Its Web Across the Door to My Backyard,
You are lucky that I’m an entomologist. Most people, after running face first into your terribly inconveniently placed web in the dark, probably wouldn’t have just backed away and looked to see where you were. While I will admit that I was quite happy to learn that you weren’t in my hair, nearly any other person probably would have tried to kill you after discovering you lurking up near the roof. Instead, I took down one little support from your web and squeezed out the door around the rest, leaving you be. I was sorry to see that you were back tonight, even though by now you should know better than to build your web across the back door. Don’t you know that large mammals walk often through that area? I did snap a few photos, true, and flashed bright lights in your eyes, but look how cute you look:
That was worth a few bright lights, right?
Please note that continued web construction across the only rear exit from my house may result in relocation to the front of the house. There, you will have to compete with other spider of your kind who has been building a web across the walkway to the front door.
Sincerely,
The Dragonfly Woman
_______________
The Dragonfly Woman 
Lovely !
Thank you!
Rarely can I say that a spider is “pretty,” but that is certainly the case here. Beautiful shot too!
I think the orb weavers are, in general, very handsome spiders. The argiopes are particularly spectactular, but the one in the photo (a Neoscona, I believe) is awfully nice too.
What a fuzzy face!
Isn’t it? I think it’s pretty cute. :)
Coming soon: arachnid eviction notice served?
Super photo … And lovely patience, loved the sense of humour coming through in this post.
Glad you liked the post! This post is more like how my brain normally works than my usual posts. :)
At my last house, the walk from the back door to the driveway went through a spider’s paradise. They built webs everywhere. I always tried to make my husband walk in front of me. The typical walking posture involved keeping one arm up in front of your face so that the arm hit the web before your nose :-)
Ha ha! Nice. I don’t think I want to even go arm first into one of these webs though. They’re HUGE!
We have a spider that looks like that one around here. They like to live on our porch and build webs down from the roof to the railing every evening. When one of them claims the area over the steps, we have problems!
We’ve had to cancel shopping trips because nobody wanted to stay out late enough to deal with the spider!
Ha ha ha! That’s just fabulous. And yes, the spider DOES keep me from going outside sometimes. Might relocate him (well, likely her…) tonight!
Love the letter! Sometimes I really do wish I could pass on a few tips to straying wildlife.
I would be nice from time to time, wouldn’t it?
Great post! The spider looks a bit fearsome, I have to admit. Not poisonous, though? I have been just a little anxious about spiders ever since my son was bitten 7 times by a hermit spider while living in Oregon’s high desert area. OR. does have some doosies. He had terrible wounds and was very ill! But…back to your spider–yes, excellent shot and love the story!
All spiders are venomous, but they vary considerably in how potent that venom is and how much they can deliver to a human. Very few can kill a person (without factoring in allergies), but quite a few can leave quite painful wounds.
For instance, the huntsman spider can cause me to panic, fall backwards, and hit my head on the kitchen hood. That was a very painful wound! Also, I dropped the relish and the bottle shattered on the floor. That could have caused some seriously dangerous wounds, but it was just a big mess.
: – )
Yes, I guess I did know that all are venomous…I have had a few bites in the house and when hiking. But the soreness usually goes away in a couple weeks and leaves no scars. I liked your spider story a lot; thanks for the share.
Ha ha ha! I love your painful wounds Michael! I love it when you comment. :)
The orb weavers are generally harmless to people. They’re just big!
Thank goodness I’ve finally found someone else that does the same thing lol. I’ve been laughed at so many times for carefully not breaking webs for different reasons. We too have a spider that does this and I should learn by now his there every morning, but I do forget and feel awful when I’ve bundled through breaking all that intricacy…and momentarily panicking running round shaking…but carefully not to kill him…incase his in my hair like you too lol ;-)
You would think they would learn though wouldn’t you.
Great photo of him too, he looks quite big eeep.
Ha ha! Glad to hear that you do the same thing that I do! And yes, this is a large spider. It’s rather cute though, don’t you think? :)
Some clarification please. When I was studying entomology some number of years ago, spiders were not included. Has that changed?
TECHNICALLY entomology doesn’t include spiders as they’ve got their own subject (arachnology, of course), but practically it often does. There aren’t as many spider species, so they rarely get their own, separate department/subject. It really depends a lot on the particular school, but the spiders are typically wrapped into entomology programs these days, or ecology/evolutionary bio programs.