Are spiders getting bigger or am I getting smaller?

[SueA]

Not seen any really big spiders in the house recently but I love watching them scuttle across the carpet! I have had 'pet' spiders in the past, I had one which lived in the kitchen window on it's web so that it could catch any flies but I had to relocate it outside when we had the windows double-glazed recently. The one before that lived in the window for ages, shedding it's skin & getting bigger & bigger- I was quite upset when I found it dead behind the microwave (suspect O.H. might have had something to do with that!). This morning in our local library there was someone giving a talk on 'creepy crawlies' to a group of youngsters & he was passing around a taratula in a container for them to look at- I almost sat down with them & asked if I could join in!

[HappyMouffe]

I used to lodge in a converted barn. The spiders there were the size of small elephants (honestly ) - I was regularly woken up by the sound of them running across papers I'd left by the side of the bed.

I know it's sad, but I'm rather frightrened of house spiders. I don't mind the ones in the garden, but house spiders run out unexpectedly from all sorts of places.

[Madasafish]

Spiders' webs in Autumn covered in morning dew in the garden on a sunny day are wonderful.

We get lots: an old house with creaky floorboards .

Worry about the house when they start dropping dead for no apparent reason!:-))

[bazzaboy]

hi H

Haven't seen Sid again yet but if he's carrying a suitcase of your impeccable marble cake guess it'll take him ages Did you also send Harold Hornet as an advance storm-trooper (see separate thread), am feeling targeted, whatever next, Sally the Scorpion in the woodshed with the candlestick... It's getting like the insect version of Cluedo up here!

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[bazzaboy]

hi SueA, Happy M and MadaF

Creepies, old houses and rustling papers... This house is full of bits of paper sticking out of books, unread mags, bills etc.... A few years ago we had a mini earthquake here in the Midlands (I kid you not) and the one thing that haunts me - I can still hear it -was that every piece of paper rustled at the same time, it was uncanny. If it had been spiders doing it I think I'd have left home but it was just an earthquake.

One other item on today's Spider News... I'm told engineers are trying to analyse and artificially recreate spiders' thread because its ratio of weight, thickness, elasticity and strength is the greatest of any known material. I'll check with Sid if he turns up and let you know.

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[HappyMouffe]

Bazzaboy, an interesting article on spider web-making can be found here:

clicky clicky link

If I were you, I'd check Sid's webs, just in case... You need to know if you are dealing with a spider under the influence! If the web is looking a bit dodgy, you might need to check he's not getting into the coffee jar!

[Madasafish]

>Bazzaboy: re erthquakes: I can remember one here when I was upstairs dressing at 7am.. it was quite severe.. epicentre around Dudley? Mid 1990s

I felt seasick...the house creaked... (but it does that in summer as joists expand and in winter as they contract (and expand with heating).

[bazzaboy]

Caffeine days

Bazzaboy, an interesting article on spider web-making can be found here:

clicky clicky link

If I were you, I'd check Sid's webs, just in case... You need to know if you are dealing with a spider under the influence! If the web is looking a bit dodgy, you might need to check he's not getting into the coffee jar!

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LOL, thanks HM, the things they do in the name of science! I think I've had a caffeine day myself today, been struggling with nets (rather than webs, fruit cage...) and not getting very far. Went to pick some plums and couldn't find the tree, was that caffeine at work? I must get this garden better organised...

No photo on that site of effects of marble cake on spiders' webs so the investigation remains incomplete, will check when Sid makes it back.

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