Nightmare

[vaneramos]

When we were kids, my neighbourhood friends and I cut a maze of trails and treeforts through the woods and undergrowth on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. We had our own wilderness. Fantasy adventures took shape there. Whenever the neighbours' Uncle Louis came to visit, he chased us around The Jungle and performed grass torture if he caught us. Nobody considered me an athletic boy, but in that beloved place I was nimble and elusive.

These big black and yellow spiders liked to spin webs across the trails. I never actually ran into one, because each was marked with a glaring white zigzag pattern, which the spider would shake vigorously when it sensed a large creature approaching. So they managed to scare the crap out of me two or three times a summer.

Hurrying home today for my shift at the library, I parked beside a marsh along the way for a quick walk.

The canvas of any new landscape seems unremarkable at first glance. These walks always begin in doubt: "There will be nothing interesting to photograph today." I try to compose something from the textures of foliage and shapes of trees. On a day like today, I have only 15 minutes to spare.

I waded into the goldenrod. Then suddenly, right in front of my face, appeared this nightmare demon, shaking its web at me, scaring me to the depths of memory.

We called them banana spiders, but that is actually the common name of something else. I never found anything about them in books. But Wikipedia offers more than I ever hoped to know about Argiope aurantia. This Internet age is a wonderful time to live for natural history geeks.

Comments

[bixie.livejournal.com]

I remember those from wisconsin! yikes!

also, aren't banana spiders those fat brown/orange ones? if so, we get those in the blueberry field and they're quite...intimidating.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

"Banana Spider" was just the name we used as kids. You're right, that common name is usually applied to another spider, with which I'm unfamiliar.

The common name for this one is Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

We have those spiders here as well. If you leave your porch light on, they will set up shop in large spaces where insects can fly into their webs. Huge, seven foot webs. I've walked into a few of them in my day with no deleterious effects. I was much more worried about the huge hornet that found its way into my house last night. It was 2/3 the size of my pinkie finger—not kidding.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That would freak me out, too. But yes, these spiders are considered harmless.

[djjo.livejournal.com]

Lordy that's a big creepy spider!

I think that's worse than my run in with the wolf spider in the cottage last week. Yeash!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh not really! These spiders shake their webs to scare predators (or blundering humans) but they are not aggressive, and are considered harmless. It's body is about as wide as my thumbnail, and a little longer.

[(Anonymous)]

I just don't know how you could stand to get that close to that spider. I read your comment about them not being aggressive but they just look like they could kill you. We have on living in our azalea bush right now. I am to afriaid to get close enough to try and kill him or her.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I know, spiders are the one thing that freaks me out. It's strange how I forget about qualms when I have a camera in hand.

If it looks like this, it's probably a her. The males are smaller and, I think, less colourful.