La Belle's Hobby Farm: Spiders vs. Worms, Round 2!

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings
as it does out of finding a small green worm. 
~ Bill Vaughan

O

 ne worm vs. spider bout wasn’t enough for the Bloodthirsty Gardner.

I must be three years old and forgetful!

Tia was missing from my garden one morning.  And the morning after that.  And then evening followed and on the 3rd day of the Mystery of the Missing Arachnid, I was as heartbroken as Wilbur. 

She must have had her babies and gone off to die! I wailed to my tomato plants.  Now who will protect you!?

I did see the webs of a few different spiders, which made me feel a little better.  Maybe others were taking up the slack.



A perfect circle amoung the rhodies.
© 2012 Mikaela D’Eigh, La Belle Dame De Merci

 



An orb weaver with silk to spare.  Is there anything more beautiful than a web with dew on it?
Of course, there's nother creepier either.
© 2012 Mikaela D’Eigh, La Belle Dame De Merci



To my untrained eye, a cross between a funnel and an orb
© 2012 Mikaela D’Eigh, La Belle Dame De Merci

This orb weaver built this in the mulberry weed - right over my garden.

© 2012 Mikaela D’Eigh, La Belle Dame De Merci

 Day 4 and 5 I was busy with preparing for dinner guests.  Finally, on Day 6, as I was mowing the backyard, a bright yellow spot caught my eye.  It was Tia!  She had moved her web over to the shed ~ more chance at catching dinner over there, I suppose.  She was busily wrapping up a  meal, so I left her alone.  Then yesterday, as I was picking some ripe tomatoes (sweetest I’ve tasted yet!), I spotted it.

A bag worm.

You know the kind: thin, yellowish-green, and voracious.  I was already miffed that something ~ perhaps the strong winds we had late yesterday afternoon ~ had almost flattened by my tallest basil plant. (I know they’re not supposed to look like miniature trees, but I couldn’t help it ~ I liked watching them grow!)  So I was ready for a scapegoat when I spotted Le Creepy Crawlie.  I said something along the lines of Arghsmrksmorfblah, scooped him up, and stomped over to Tia’s new home.



Yummy!  Insect burrito for dinner!

© 2012 Mikaela D’Eigh, La Belle Dame De Merci

She was enjoying a rather large fly burrito.  I tossed Le Creepy onto her web and waited.

I didn’t try to sit, lounge, lean, or in any other way, injure myself by watching the show.  And as it turns out, there wasn’t one.  Again. She ran down to inspect the vibrations on her web, stood stock still for a moment, and then ran back up the web to her dinner.

Are you kidding me?

So I googled and found that, yes, most spiders eat worms.  But some spiders are picky, and sometimes, it’s probably just not hungry at the moment, only curious enough to inspect and then run away.  I did say I interrupted Tia’s dinner-in-progress.  Sigh.  I think my worm vs. spider fight promotion days are over.

For reals this time.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela