Sign Up Now! Spiders are Amazing Club!
Join me. Take a breath. It’s not necessary to enter freak out mode. It’s only a spider.
You and I are not on any spider list of choice foods. Spiders eat things with 6 legs. You and I have two. Spider webs are designed for flying crawling things small enough to be trapped and held. You and I can sweep away any spider web with one little finger.
Join me. The Spiders are Amazing Club is organizing. We can redirect the energy we give to screams of “eek a spider!” We can eliminate the stress of spider freaking. Instead we gain the peace that comes with spider admiration. That’s right…peace, no stress. Join the Spiders are Amazing Club.
There are no membership fees.
There is no secret handshake.
There are no club rules.
You do not receive a membership card-and there is no discount in any store for being a member.
Why join?
There are benefits.
Consider this list: peace, stress reduction, a sense of amazement, good health (you need to be outside), understanding of a largely unseen spider world, did I mention satisfaction? Yes, there is satisfaction in the Spiders are Amazing Club. Satisfaction comes with knowing the true function of spiders. It comes with delight in understanding the unbelievable engineering of a spider web. In addition, there is knowledge of seeing that spiders are a part of an exceptionally designed world. The spider has a superior place in the plan.
This is a banded garden spider.
To be a member of the Spiders are Amazing Club, the only requirement is read the remainder of this spider blog.
To persuade you that spiders are amazing, study one spider with me.
It’s the garden spider. Its Latin scientific name is argiope aurantia.
The garden spider is large. Females can grow to over an inch across the abdomen. Males are smaller. If you spot a large black and yellow spider in late summer and early fall…there is great certainty it is a garden spider. Another reason this is likely is that they are found over all of the North American continent…except Alaska. Big is beautiful. Female garden spiders are big. They range in color from black and yellow to white/tan and yellow.
Be amazed.
Once you find one, the delights will keep coming. Look closely at the intricate patterns on the spider. Examine its jointed legs. Garden spiders are truly beautiful creatures. As you look at the spider, your eyes will naturally notice the carefully woven web. Spider webbing is among the strongest natural substances we know. If you can, look at the entire web, start at the outside margins and slowly work your eyes to the center. Garden spiders are orb web weavers. Their webs are spherical and stunning. The circular design will delight any careful observer with its beauty. Here’s an extra bit of information: Garden spiders are only one type of spider that weaves an orb web. What’s amazing about garden spider web is how large it is.
In the orb, there are sticky web strands and non-sticky strands. The spider’s food gets stuck on the sticky webbing and the spider travels the non-sticky strand to “harvest” its meal. Garden spiders and other orb weavers usually rebuild their web each day. Think of that! All of that beauty gone on one day. All of that beauty renewed each day.
Take a close look at the center of the web. See the zigzag patter. running through the center? It’s called the stabilimentum. And biologists don’t know the exact purpose for this jaw dropping feature. One thought is that this zigzag down the center alerts birds to the presence of the web and prevents bird flight from untimely web destruction. Perhaps because the base word is stable this beautiful addition functions to stabilize the web in the wind.
If you are thinking of the impossibility of either one of us creating an everyday orb to capture our food-you should become a Spiders are Amazing Club member. Neither of us in a whole lifetime could weave a web. The orb web of a garden spider can be well described with a single word: miracle.
Miracle is a great word to conclude with. Truth is-spiders are not yucky-spiders are miracles.
There is one rule in the Spiders are Amazing Club. Members actively look for spiders to admire while outside. Oh…you don’t have to sign up either-simply join me in admiring another of God’s perfectly amazing creations: the garden spider.
For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” 1 Corinthians 10:26