The Perfect Plant: Spiders

Quite a few people have asked why there are so many spiders this year, and why they are so big. One answer is that a warm summer will increase the availability of food sources, allowing them to put on more weight. The other reason is that as the autumn has been so warm they haven’t felt the need to go indoors and hibernate. So the males are still roaming around looking for females.

Notes on webs: did you know that the tensile strength of spiders’ webs is actually stronger than steel cables? Also, a spider has at least three different types of web – one for throwing out into the wind to start up a new web, another more sticky one for trapping insects, and another finer one for wrapping up its meal. The spider webs looses stickiness quite quickly, and as they are rich in protein it is not uncommon for a spider to eat its web each day and then make a new one!

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