I discovered a new tenant in my garden today

[madeleone]

I was more than a little worried upon going out to check my garden today (which is right on my front deck in a group of buckets and planter boxes) for ripe tomatoes and discovered this very scary looking resident. The body alone is at least an inch long and with those long legs it looks enormous!




I called hubby out to bring his phone so I could take a picture, he was sure it must be deadly, his reasoning was because it's so pretty. Upon looking it up it's a Argiope aurantia commonly known as the yellow garden spider. While it is venomous it's said these spiders are not aggressive. They might bite if grabbed, but other than for defense they do not attack large animals and their bite is like a bee sting. So even though I'm not a huge fan of spiders, for now, I'm adopting the live and let live philosphy. Maybe she'll eat enough mosquitos to earn her keep.

Comments

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you let the spider be. Spiders are an important part of our ecosystem, eating bugs that might otherwise be eating your tomato plants. We have loads of spiders here at Manderly, as we have lots of trees and shrubbery. We let them be, and even go out of our way not to disturb their webs. I even have an agreement with the indoor spiders: they stay off the floor, and I stay off the ceiling and walls. It works very well, and I'm sure that they find bugs to eat that get inside somehow. We love our spiders!

[madeleone]

I even have an agreement with the indoor spiders: they stay off the floor, and I stay off the ceiling and walls. This statement made me laugh, I am in total agreement. LOL