If you are laughing as you read this, then you know exactly what I’m talking about! Or the spider is seen when inches from the face resulting in a heart-hammering halt, followed by the “heebee-jeebee’s” shake or dance. The web of the golden silk spider has beautiful golden threads in the middle of the “trap” part of the web when seen in bright sunlight, but most often the web is felt while walking into it before it is seen. This huge yellow and black spider (often wrongly called a banana spider – those highly venomous and non-related spiders are in South America and have killed healthy adults) can have a leg-span of four inches, and spins a web up to three feet across, with anchoring webs up to eight feet. I’ve seen them over salt water among mangroves, in freshwater swamps and among sinkholes in hardwood forests, and spread from palm to palm in the most unlikely of places. They are all over Florida, and in nearly every environment. This golden silk orbweaver (Nephilia clavipes) is the most common spider I encounter when walking between trees. what is so great about spiders? It’s a really simple answer – once you get past the primal and naturally ingrained fear (arachnophobia) all people have to some degree, they are really quite beautiful! I have been bit by some of the most exotic tarantulas in the world, including those nasty Asian ones, but for some reason, walking into the web of a big silk spider unexpectedly really freaks me out. I am one of the few who are very fond of spiders, and love to get close to photograph them, even if it means handling them to place them somewhere so they are easier to photograph. Of all of the obstacles, discomforts and things to avoid while in pursuit of all things wild to photograph in the Florida wilderness, spiderwebs are at the top of my list of creepiness. I’m dressed for war, but why am I twirling a long thin stick in front of me at head and shoulder level as I move through the trees? Camera slung across my chest on one shoulder and a water bottle slung across the other like ammo belts, and a heavy tripod that can take (and has taken) a beating over one shoulder. Decked out in camouflage, heavy boots that can repel the fangs of the largest cottonmouth, heavy backpack filled with all essential camera gear, including several types of flashes, lenses, and filters. Again, I’m not using insect repellent because I can’t stand the way it feels on my skin, and my clothes are soaked from the humidity. Mosquitoes are tearing me up, but the deer flies aren’t out yet. Thirty minutes past dawn, and I’m deep in the the steamy sweltering heat at the edge of a swamp in North Florida in summer.
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