Stubborn Spiders and their Silk

I found another crabby spider hanging around, but unlike the last one that made its home at a comfortable distance underneath the grapefruit tree, this one overstepped its boundaries.  It attached to the house along the garden path.  After part of the web caught part of my ponytail, I was sufficiently creeped out enough to take action.  I thought a couple quick tugs on the anchor threads would do it, but spidey kept hanging on, so I kept walking.  I walked a good 25 feet before the web finally snapped.  And after all that, it took less than a half-hour for it to rebuild.  Here it is laughing at me; you can see the very minor damage I caused toward the bottom-right.

Pound for pound, spider silk is stronger than steel and stretches up to 40% of its normal length!  The Museum of Natural History in New York is exhibiting a naturally golden textile made from spider silk.  More than one million female golden orb spiders contributed to the 11′ x 4′ woven textile!  Here’s a creepy crawly tidbit: it’s difficult to cultivate spider silk because when kept together, spiders like to bite each other’s heads off!


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