More spiders

There is one spider here that has actually scared me: well maybe not scared but definitely reduced to panic. The spider is the Golden Orb Weaver, and they can get pretty large. To the point where they can actually catch birds. Now they don't go out of their way to catch birds, but their webs are incredibly strong, and birds can run into them and get stuck and exhaust themselves. And then get eaten. Aside from that they can give you a bit of a bite, they are only very mildly venomous to humans. (No worse than a bee sting).



The webs are impressive works of engineering in their own right. I have seen them spanning roads, anchored in the trees on either side. Cables running ten meters into the air from the ground.

But the most impressive thing is the strength of the thread. Its like silk. Virtually unbreakable, it just stretches. You run into an orb weaver web, we're not talking gossamer thin here, we're talking fishing line.

Now the spiders like to find a nice wide open space and then build the web between a couple of trees. Trails in the woods are perfect. The spider then sits right in the middle of this construction, waiting for dinner. Which is all well and good until you come running through the woods and run into the web.

I do orienteering and hashing for fun and fitness. Its great to be out running around. Lots of wildlife, lizards, goannas, birds. But the one thing that I don't enjoy is running into the webs.

Picture this, you are running along a trail, just enjoying the countryside and not really watching where you are going. Suddenly you feel like someone has pressed a veil over your head, you are covered with sticky fibers. And the worst thing is knowing that there is a spider sitting in there somewhere.

Its a 50/50 chance whether the spider is on the outside of the web, or in the bad case now firmly attached to you by lengths of strong, sticky thread. This is the point when blind panic sets in, you basically brush away as much of the thread as you possibly can, and just hope that the spider has had the brushoff.



Someone once told me of a case where a guy had a heart attack after having a spider the size of his face attached to it. And yes, that is definitely a nightmare scenario. They do have their uses. I was on a hash house harriers run late one night and we were lost in the woods, trying to find the trail laid by the hare. We came to one section, and there was a long stretch of trail, with spider webs everywhere. It was like a scene from a horror movie. But we were able to positively conclude that the trail didn't go that way!