• Thursday-What'sUP July 13 - 06:31 am

Not quite the World Wide Web, but a web none-the-less, spotted by Joyce Tormala. With the morning dampness sticking to the finely woven strands, this intricate creation takes on a bejeweled look. It's amazing that such delicate work can hold the weight of those bigger drops, not to mention the innumerable smaller ones too. Then in another shot, Joyce captures one of the artists who regularly produce these webs. It looks like this guy has designed his over some Lake Superior stones. I hope it's far enough away from the Big Lake, because I don't think it would be strong enough to hold together under the weight of Superior's waves!

Get chills just looking at that 2nd pic.

I wonder if these artists have a built in GPS that directs their web spinning?

Can't stand spiders, but when you look at their webs, they are amazing creatures!

Not a spider lover, but I do love that they build those webs to catch bugs. Haven't been much of a fan of spiders ever since my son nearly died from a spider bite over in Guam. They're great pictures, though.

Spiders have "ATTITUDE". I don't like them either.

Hi
I have liked spiders ever since the time I moved a bed at a previous, less-well built, cabin and noticed a spiderweb full of biting flies near a crack to the outside. I know there will always be flies, mosquitos & those *%# beetles that try to come live inside, but there would be a lot more of them plaguing me if not for spiders.

Granted, tree swallows are prettier.

Looks like the in-fa-mous "brown recluse" spider.......:(

FJL - that's not a brown recluse - it's the wrong shape and build. Also, they're very rare anywhere in Michigan - they can't live in temps below 40° F. According to michigan.gov, there's only been one or two documented cases of brown recluse findings in the state, and those were in heated buildings - spiders likely came in on some goods shipped from the southern US.

We had plenty of brown recluse at our last house - about 200 yards off the Kansas River. Glad to be back up in the northwoods where they're not the "most common household spider" found. Also found the occasional black widow hanging about outside - thankfully never indoors!

Have I mentioned it's nice to be back north?

Thanks Mel-saves me from the research.......:)

The last time I was in the UP I noticed that you have a lot more spiders there than we do here in Jersey. My husband and I spent an hour or so in a laundromat in Copper Harbor doing a load and watching a spider spin a huge web from scratch. I'm not a huge spider fan if they are in my house, but under these circumstances, it was actually quite fascinating to watch.

The owner of one of our pet stores got a brown recluse bite while opening a shipment from down south. I guess we should be coreful opening care packages from our southern friends.

When I was kid growing up in Indiana
we used to have huge bananna spiders (we called them).

We were fascinated by catching a cricket or grasshopper and tossing it in web and watching the spider attack and wrap its dinner.

for all you "WEB" fans here's another pic I took a couple summers ago on north shore of lake Superior at Muskelunge state park

http://gallery.pasty.com/bobg252/albuu23/vac05_032.jpg.html

Spiders are just plain horrible to even think about!

Bobg--Eeeewww....that many spiders in one place...reminds of that movie Arachnophobia. Bleck!! :-P

I hate spiders, they give me the creeps! But its amazing how they can spin a web and it doesn't take them that long.

I would also like to say happy birthday to my mom! Love ya mom.

I Love Spiders!! I have had a few as pets over the years, including when my children were young. I took them in glass aquariums to school when they would have show and tell. At Halloween I would put out a big bowl full of large candy bars and would set the aquariums in a semi circle around the bowl, and only the most brave would grab a hand full. When the spiders whould see sudden movement towards the candy they would sit up on their back four legs and kids would scream. One year as I was sitting on the porch in a scarecrow costume ready to pounce on the unsuspecting, I over heard a Father say to his child " careful now honey, remember this is the Lady with the scary spiders" And the child replied "Oh yeah... she's scary"

lol trb, i'm sure there were a lot freaked out by them spiders. did you actually get to scare anyone when you were dressed in that costume?

Yes, I did. I held a large fake knife with blood on it, and I also had on a Jason mask with a straw hat stuffed around my shirt coller with hay. It was fun and I had my son Chris help me with the drama. He would yell "Jason, be good, No more children, you have had enought tonight." Then I would moan and sit back down in my rocker.

Yes, I did. I held a large fake knife with blood on it,
and I also had on a Jason mask with a straw hat stuffed
around my shirt coller with hay. It was fun and I had my
son Chris help me with the drama. He would yell "Jason, be
good, No more children, you have had enought tonight." Then
I would moan and sit back down in my rocker.

Mel we have had a couple of cases of bites in Northern WI, They ride up on a trailer,RV,or boat in spring and make it through the summer. I guess they could make the winter if they could find there way in some place warm.