I was visiting my property in Idaho last weekend and saw something that brought back memories. If you look closely enough at the pictures below you will see spider webs between the straw:
Those weren’t specially chosen views to see the webs. The entire field, as far as you could see was covered with similar webs, not just between the straw bu, between every clod that stuck up more than a few inches. This is a 160 acre field.
It brought back memories of when I was probably 12 to 14 years old and working on the fall plowing. One evening I was driving the Caterpillar D4 with a John Deer five-bottom moldboard plow. The sun was just right to highlight the millions of tiny creatures taking advantage of a gentle breeze..As far as you could see the air was filled with spiders “paragliding” across the field.
Oh to be 14 again in Idaho with few cares, viewing nature with amazement.
Was out glassing a canyon on a whitetail hunt the other day. I could see webs flying. Never thought about spiders flying on them. That’s funny. Thanks!
i walked a lot around milton freewater, especially up the hill to the cemetary, and quite often you just had to sweep the web out of your way to go along. big thick strands of it, everywhere just floating along. it is pretty amazing.
(and, yes the farmers around here used d4’s and d5’s for plowing. not so much plowing anymore, low till doncha know, and what’s done is with the rubber treaded challenger’s and john deere’s. you can pick a d4 or a d5 up used, pretty cheap, nowadays.)
The spiders are using some form of electrostatic field generation, but they normally wait until the weather generates a steady wind, so they can travel away from their starting point. As Joe was pointing out the huge amount of spiders in one field, that is not a good survival location. Best to spread out so there is not as much competition for food.
Spiders paragliding; an excellent metaphor. Also, I am a city boy and have never seen this, but remember this is the scene near the end of Charlotte’s Web.