Ever since Hurricane Ivan, we have had these incredible spiders all in our oak trees. Never saw one before that, but now they are everywhere around here. They are called Golden Orb spiders or sometimes Calico spiders. They spin a gold colored web and can grow to be pretty big. They like to build their webs in huge conglomerations that my kids call "Shelob's Lair" after the spider in Lord of the Rings. This one is on the end of our house in a web that is approximately 15 feet by 6 feet...she has gotten so big I thought she deserved her own post in my blog...soon she'll make an egg sack and then die. Then we can be somewhat spider free until next summer. :o) Kind of tough when you live in the country...lots of bugs and not much you can do about it. Not like in the city where there are paved streets and sidewalks and the city mosquito trucks as well as your neighbors all spraying pesticides, too.
We saw these spiders in Brazos Bend State Park in south Texas. We have these and some other big monster sized spiders in our area -- I have a stick that I designated my "spider stick" and I used it to clear the back yard webs before mowing. I can survive spiders if they stay away from me but walking into a web is a positive horror for me. After a year or so I noticed that we do not now have as many spiders as we did before. I guess I discouraged them.
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