Gang Violence

William, Anna and I were witnesses to some pretty intense scenes of gang violence through our kitchen window today. Yesterday two very large spiders had built their webs next to each other spanning the width of one of our kitchen windows. This morning there was only one of them there, the slightly larger one which I have named Goliath. During lunch I glanced up at him and saw that there was a smaller, longer-legged spider on the edge of his web and that Goliath was in the opposite corner. I went over to look more closely thinking the leggy boy must be building where Goliath’s missing companion had previously resided. That wasn’t the case. Goliath was on the left side of the web (looking out the window) apparently fighting a second leggy spider while the leggy spider on the right side of the window tried to distract him. Right-side-leggy would crawl down the webs of the departed neighbor spider to the edge of Goliath’s web. When he got there, he would put a leg on a strand of Goliath’s web, give it a tug and then hightail it in the opposite direction. This is really what he was doing! I watched him do it over and over! He was trying to distract Goliath while his buddy attacked him. I am insanely afraid of spiders and absolutely disgusted by Goliath and his Goliath-ness, but this was more than I could handle. I tapped on the glass over the distracter-leggy-boy. He raised his legs menacingly toward me and then scampered away. Meanwhile, Goliath curled into a protective sort of spider-ball and waited for attack from Leggy-boy number two. Number two raised his long front legs and stared him down with his evil red head with black fangs, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Finally it came. He lunged forward and, at the same moment, Goliath sprang into action. Leggy-boy number two dropped to the bottom of the window sill on a narrow string of silk. I went outside later tonight to get a picture of Goliath and the one remaining gang tormentor. What was my surprise to see, hanging out in the corner above Leggy-boy and out of sight from inside the house, none other than the gang-leader--the Godfather, shall we call him? He was the very spider who had built his web next to Goliath’s the previous night and now seemed in all seriousness to be directing a gang attack on Goliath in an attempt to oust him from the prime spot of real estate. I d like to point out that there are 4 more windows in this set of kitchen bay windows. What is so impressive about the second from the left?



Goliath under attack by one of the leggy boys. Sorry, the camera wouldn’t focus on the spiders even when I put it on macro setting. I guess the layer of glass between us confused it...


These spiders aren't dangerous are they?