A very large Orb Spider made it’s home in the window of our grade 3 class. Her web is against the glass of our window. On the first day of math class, we were pleasantly interrupted by the spider coming down into the web to catch its prey. Naturally, this sparked many questions and so we turned it into a research assignment.
Did you know ...
- Orb spiders use venom on their prey.
- It’s not dangerous to humans. If it bites you, it will cause mild swelling and pain.
- Their web is like a trap to catch flies and bugs
- The web is attached to a zip line that leads to where she lives.
- When a bug gets stuck on the web it vibrates.
- It wraps its prey with silk, then inserts venom and brings it to its nest.
- They die in the first frost but their egg sac survives the winter and hatch in spring.
- They are more afraid of us than we are of them.
