Re: RE:Spiders

From: "Jan Clark" <janclarx@hotmail.com>

James wrote:
>Second, spiders provide a wonderful food source for bluebirds, >warblers, 
>wrens and all the other kinds of beneficial
>birds we like to have around, which we recognize as beneficial >feeders of 
>bugs we don't like. When dealing with ecology you have to think of the 
>entire system, >like a body that is nourished by the blood supply.

I had always believed that red backed spiders (shy, but rather deadly) only 
made their homes low down, in dark dry places, until, one day, when cleaning 
the spider webs from under the verandah eaves, a large mother red back fell, 
and almost landed on me. WELL! ... My no-poisons stand wavered, then 
collapsed .... Off I went to the supermarket for a can of insect spray, with 
the intention of doing the whole verandah area (60m X 2m) all round the 
house. I put the can in the cupboard, as I needed time to build up to 
performing the dreaded act. One week later, I dragged the can out to use, 
and as I did so, I heard a tapping on the window. I turned to see a large 
mother wattle bird, busily extracting spiders from the spider webs in the 
corner of the window panes. I was entranced, watching her fill her beak with 
wriggling black legs, then fly off, only to return an hour later for more. 
Every day, for about 8 weeks, she performed a daily round of the verandahs, 
about 6 trips a day, obviously feeding a nest of fat baby wattle birds.
Needless to say, the can went back into the cupboard, and has still not been 
used, some 4 years later.
Mother WB starts her collecting in the first week of September every year. 
There is a short respite while she hatches a second batch of eggs, then she 
is back again. We all thoroughly enjoy her visits.
The poison sprayers just don't know what they are missing.
Cheers, Jan Clark, in Australia

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