This is the cool Garden Spider we found in our front flower bed last weekend. She is a little smaller than others that I have seen before, but just as fun to watch. My Mom use to have one of these harmless spiders in her classroom every fall for her 3rd graders to watch, help feed, and learn about.
These Garden Spiders will catch bugs in their web, wrap the bugs up in silk, and then bring them back to the zig-zag part that they spun and eat them there or save them for later to eat. When my Mom had them in her classroom she would feed them a cricket everyday or every other day. Using a pair of tweezers she would carefully place the live cricket into the spider's web and the spider would quickly run over, capture the cricket, and get to work wrapping it up and eating it.
So, when my parents came to visit us this week they taught the girls how to feed our new spider crickets. Now each day since then the girls and I have tried feeding it a cricket. We have had some success and a lot of fun watching and checking on the spider.
In the picture below the spider has just captured a cricket and is wrapping it up in its silk.
Still wrapping it up....
And, in the picture below everyone is checking out our supply of crickets that we have saved in the bug barn to feed the spider.
Just today, Phoebe told me she had named our spider, Rosita. Tonight Sarah decided because Phoebe got to choose the spider's first name she would pick its middle name and last name. First The spider was Rosita Jo Hendrickson, but after we all said it outloud and laughed... a lot, Sarah changed it to Rosita Web Hendrickson. So, Rosita Web Hendrickson... We want to give you a great big WELCOME to our yard! We hope you enjoy all the crickets and various other bugs we try to feed you. Thanks for sticking around and tolerating some very interested little girls.
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