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November 09, 2006 - She's no isty-bitsy spiderThe Suffolk Times • November 9, 2006 She 9s I*t_symbittsy spitde my aaugnter orougnt me a plastic container with a huge spider in it tha a group of excited second - graders had called on her to identify. Their teacher had found it in the hallway. Spiders often go into buildings at this time of the year. I often get calls from people about spiders; usually it's the big ones that they're con- cerned with. So what do I tell them when asked, "Is it poisonous ?" While almost all spiders are harmless, there Left: One of our largest spider found here on the North Fork is the wolf spider. The female carries her young on her back until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Above: I get the most calls about this big, colorful black- and - yellow garden spider. Suffolk Times r Paul and Barbara Stouten p, FOCUS exceptions of the black wido my aaugnter orougnt me a plastic container with a huge spider in it tha a group of excited second - graders had called on her to identify. Their teacher had found it in the hallway. Spiders often go into buildings at this time of the year. I often get calls from people about spiders; usually it's the big ones that they're con- cerned with. So what do I tell them when asked, "Is it poisonous ?" While almost all spiders are harmless, there Left: One of our largest spider found here on the North Fork is the wolf spider. The female carries her young on her back until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Above: I get the most calls about this big, colorful black- and - yellow garden spider. Suffolk Times r Paul and Barbara Stouten are always the FOCUS exceptions of the black wido ON and the brown NATURE recluse, which can give you by Paul some trouble. And basically, Stoutenbur h g we should re- member most things in nature bite when threat- ened. tsecause spiaers ao us an a great favor by catching flying insects like mosquitoes, flies and other bother- some critters, I suggest they take it outside and let it go, which is ex- actly what we'll do with this spider after we have identified and photo- graphed it. I'm no expert on spiders but I have some good reference books that, with a little patience and reading, can usu- ally help us out with identification. In this case, we found it to be a wolf spider. What made it appear to be so big were the hundred or more baby spiders, called spiderlings, that were attached to its body. The female wolf spider carries her large egg case around with her until the young are ready to hatch. Then the spiderlings climb out and cling to her back and from then on she carries them around. If the mother is in danger, they will climb off and get out of the way as they did when we tried to photograph them. Then they climb back on when all is well and continue to stay with the mother until they molt and drop off to go on their own. Spiders have eight legs and live in various habitats, spinning different webs or living in different types of homes. The webs of spiders actually are a marvel of engineering. What can be more beautiful than a spider's web drenched in dew? I have often gone out in the garden just as the sun paints the first rays of gold about and stopped to marvel at one of these de- lightful webs that outshines anything else in the garden. One of the spiders to create these webs is the black and yellow garden spider. It is a large spi- der, and because of its size and color it often brings chills to the observer. Three spinnerets at the rear of a spider release fluid for making the silk that is used in various parts of the web. Some of the liquid becomes hard and rigid for the web's spokes. It's on these threads that the spider attaches the sticky, flexible silks to form the radii that wind around the center of the web. When a fly, mosquito or other fly- ing insect runs into these super -thin, almost invisible, silk threads, it sends vibrations back down to'the center of the web. Then Mr. Spider quickly runs out and with his pinchers inject a paralyzing fluid that kills its prey. The spider never gets entangled because,it travels on the hardened sncxy suosiance sucn as inai on ine threads that go around and around the web. Most spiders that live outside die over the winter; their kin go on through the eggs the mother has laid in some sheltered spot. Of course, if the spider can find a protected place, it could well live through the winter and start anew come spring. Yet I've often watched the chickadees, nut- hatches and the busy Carolina wrens work under the picnic table, along the ceiling of the porch, behind the bark of trees and in a hundred other places. where they might find egg cases and hibernating spiders that thought they were well hidden, until they fell prey to one of these winter e the sun dries up the early- morning dew, look for jewel- draped sp that are engineering marvels.