Mostly I will allow these shots to speak for themselves.
I don’t know where you live, but if you know anything about wasps, which is what the large creature is, here, you know that anything smaller than a wasp that can make a wasp act terrified, is a force to be dealt with.
I dealt with them both.
But look!
What you see here is a large, round, brown planter beside a smaller, rectangular, gray planter, with a large black wasp caught in a black widow web. It is she, herself, also visible, moving in. Can you see her red dots?
Sorry I couldn’t stage these better. Uncooperative subjects! The widow is obvious unafraid; not so, the wasp.
Based on the size of it, the wasp may have been a queen? Makes a good story: One queen defeats another.
It’s that time of year, when we remember we are surrounded, here, with large and dangerous beasts. Always, stay at least four feet from a black widow spider because it is a jumping spider and is fearless.
Well, almost fearless. I used a zoom function to get this seemingly close. At first she was put off by my flash, but she got over it.
And always, ALWAYS go immediately to a hospital if a black widow spider bites you. They may not give you anti-venom, but they will know what to do and you will need close observation for at least two days. A black widow spider bite can kill a full-grown man in about 4 hours. Do not think you are an exception.
As a clue, besides the obvious red marking on a shiny black spider, the web is tough and of no apparent pattern, as if the weaver were drunk. It makes an audible tearing sound if you tear it, because it is such a tough web. They prefer undisturbed places, which our front porch has become, since it’s been so hot around here.
Time to sweep!
Excellent warning, well said, and pretty cool that the wasp was smart enough to know when she had more than met her match! We have black widows around here too…
Thanks, Kate! I am sorry you have these spiders; they are so dangerous. I am not sure, though, if maybe the wasp was bitten when I was adjusting my camera. There was such a sudden cessation of activity from it.
We have no poisonous spiders here, phew!
If there was a wasp and a black widow dueling near me, I don’t think I’d stick around to take photos!
Well done – entertaining shots.
Maybe it was safer than it looks. The wasp was entangled in this extremely strong web, and the spider was undecided about which was more dangerous–the wasp’s stinger or my camera flash! They do not really love light, much. We have so many of both creatures, we’ve become semi-experts, although we are still extremely cautious. I was over four feet away, using a zoom function on my camera.