Arachnophobes beware...

We're going to talk about spiders today.  

Everyone always sees the brightly colored black and yellow spiders that make their webs in your plants and near your house so I thought I'd briefly discuss them.  The Black and Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia) is the common yellow garden spider.  

The females are typically larger than the males and they are known as common orb web spiders. This means that they spin their webs in a circle--not into names like Charlotte.  The males build a smaller zig-zag shaped web on the outer layer of the females larger web.  Each evening the spider will eat their web and then re-build it the next morning preferring a sunny spot.  Dinner are the flying insects that get caught in their webs, most commonly: aphids, flies, bees, grasshoppers, and wasps.  

I know some people have issues with spiders, but personally I think they can be quite pretty--except when I'm walking through a trail in the woods and get a spider web in the face. (this happens quite often because I'm usually a head taller than everyone else).  Come to think of it, I'm sure it isn't pleasant for the spider either.