Giant Spider Time!

At this time of the year I walk through my yard carefully.  Usually I'm looking down (we have dogs) and around to check what garden chores I should put on my To Do list.  But in the fall I need to look up.  It's time for giant spiders and their giant webs.  Allen spotted this one from the front door this morning.

The "tie downs" for this web are from tree to tree, about 15 feet apart.  I took the photo from back about 6 feet and the spider is about 8 feet up.  I did use the telephoto feature on my camera.  It's not the largest spider I have ever seen, but I sure wouldn't want to walk into this web! 

I remember one year there was a HUGE spider that had made a web looming over the gate to the trash cans.  I'm really not very afraid of spiders, but this one had me fearful of taking out the garbage!  If I remember correctly, she was about an inch or more...  maybe six inches!

I believe these are Garden Spiders and they really aren't aggressive.  They are actually considered a beneficial insect in the garden.  They eat insects and anything that goes after the flying pests is a friend of mine!  If you take down the web, they are likely to just rebuild it in the same place and it is pretty amazing how quickly they can construct these enormous structures.  When they have built a web lower down, I actually like to look at the beautiful patterns on their bodies. 

So I let them be.  But I walk in the garden with my eyes open, and sometimes I carry my garden tools at arm's length in front of my face.  I really don't want to disturb any of these friends and then have them looking for a place to hide on me!