Spiders just waiting to take over the world.
June 9, 2012 2:42 PM Subscribe
Spider identification! Warning: not safe for arachnophobes! Please tell me what kind of spiders these are.
I found the horde of spiders outside my condo building in Vancouver, BC. They caught my eye because they were in a big blob about the size of a loonie. (For those non Canadians participating, it was smaller than a golf ball, bigger than a grape) on some bushes. They actually looked like the centre of a daisy. When I looked closer it looked really weird so I poked the blob with my key and that's when all the spiders started spreading out as you see them in the picture.
I'm curious what kind of spiders these are. I'm also wondering if this is a pile of baby spiders that just hatched or if they move around in this horrific blob just waiting to take over the world.
I found the horde of spiders outside my condo building in Vancouver, BC. They caught my eye because they were in a big blob about the size of a loonie. (For those non Canadians participating, it was smaller than a golf ball, bigger than a grape) on some bushes. They actually looked like the centre of a daisy. When I looked closer it looked really weird so I poked the blob with my key and that's when all the spiders started spreading out as you see them in the picture.
I'm curious what kind of spiders these are. I'm also wondering if this is a pile of baby spiders that just hatched or if they move around in this horrific blob just waiting to take over the world.
Here are some pretty pictures (not mine!) of this kind of baby spider!
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:05 PM on June 9, 2012
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:05 PM on June 9, 2012
Baby writing spiders, they are harmless. Don't kill them.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:06 PM on June 9, 2012
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:06 PM on June 9, 2012
Eee! Baby garden spiders. In a few days, every bush, corner, crevice or railing will have one of these little dudes gamely sat in the middle of a tiny perfect web, hunting for the big game known as gnats. They grow big quickly, and will soon be building webs metres across. In late autumn you might see one of the survivors, grey and bloated, haul itself arthritically into a corner to die protecting its egg sac.
Utterly harmless, and they do that spreading out thing as a defence mechanism. They do get quite big, and if you happen to blunder into a web, it's a bit vexing trying to coax a frantic spider the size of a strawberry out of your hair.
posted by scruss at 5:56 PM on June 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
Utterly harmless, and they do that spreading out thing as a defence mechanism. They do get quite big, and if you happen to blunder into a web, it's a bit vexing trying to coax a frantic spider the size of a strawberry out of your hair.
posted by scruss at 5:56 PM on June 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
Aww, baby spiders! I used to see similar spiders when I lived in Berkeley, CA. They would start in one yard and then diffuse through the neighborhood. The yard where they hatched would usually keep 5 or 6 spiders.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 8:08 PM on June 9, 2012
posted by Nibbly Fang at 8:08 PM on June 9, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Syllables at 2:54 PM on June 9, 2012 [3 favorites]