I began writing this blog months ago with the focus being on eradicating those pesky mice from our country home. We have been very successful in this process. In the last six weeks, we have caught two more mice via traps . One was in our pantry (no surprise, that seems to be their hub) and one sad mouse lost its battle with a bait-less trap in the back corner of our counter. Yes, we did disinfect immediately upon find that poor guy. The trap had been set several days before and the bait had been stolen. This mouse was obviously not the one who had succeeded in outsmarting the trap since he/she was caught without any bait at all.
As I have been living in this house for seven months now, my interests in the goings on of the animal population has evolved into a focus on the ability of these creatures we are living with to survive and persevere.
It is with this interest that I want to introduce you to a simply amazing creature. This creature is an arachnid (or spider for you less vocabulary enriched folk). Look carefully and you will be visually introduced to the Wolf Spider:
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| Wolf Spider - can you find him? |
These spiders that I have seen measure in length about 2" across from head to end. They are similar in size to a small tarantula (we also have these but they are not currently "in season" - more on them in the fall). What fascinates me about these particular spiders is how they have evolved to catch prey. From what I have observed, they appear to eat large insects by building a very unique form of web. Wolf Spiders build their webs on the ground where unsuspecting creature will crawl onto the outer edges of the web.
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| Top View of a Wolf Spider web |
In the center of the web you can see a hole. Wolf Spiderwebs are actually funnels that lead to holes in the ground. They look much like the funnel you would use to put oil in your car (or in my case one your husband uses to put oil in the car). Here is a side view of one of their funnels:
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| Wolf Spider funnel web |
The owner of this web will sit inside the hole at the bottom of the web. When the web is shaken by prey crawling or landing on the web, the Wolf Spider will leap - yes I said leap- out of the hole toward the disturbance. I have been able to observe this by taking a stick and lightly shaking the web. Honestly, it is quite startling how fast these spiders are able to come out of those holes. You may not be a fan of spiders but how may insects do you think these spiders can eat? Think about how overrun with other insects we all would be without these spiders.
Now, the spider in the picture above was found by my mother in a very sorry state. We have another creature living with us out here in the country who is a predator to the Wolf Spider and the Tarantula. Please have a look at the Tarantula Hawk:
| Tarantula Hawk - photo found on
4630048757_0a9c314725_z.jpg flickr.com
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These Tarantula Hawks are also about 2" from head to end and are a member of the wasp family. I can say without any hesitation that these wasps are one of the scariest looking things I have ever seen. Their method of survival is to find an unsuspecting large arachnid and inject them with some sort of substance that renders them paralyzed. The Hawk then carries/drags the spider to a safe place and lays its eggs inside. When the eggs hatch, the babies eat the spider inside out. Lovely. My family and I had the opportunity to watch one of these carry a large tarantula up the wall of a house, across the face of the house for a distance of about 20 feet (turning a corner of the house) and down into some bushes.
The Wolf Spider my mother found had been paralyzed and was being dragged across the ground by one of these Tarantula Hawks. When we approached to have a look at it, the Tarantula Hawk flew away.
The sophistication of these creatures' methods of survival demands our respect despite the fact that it causes us to have that feeling of fear or unease. People are very removed from having to live moment to moment focused on our own survival. We need to acquaint ourselves with the reality of how most of the world's inhabitants live day to day. They are focused on one goal - survival. I find it fascinating.
