In South Africa we are blessed with a great diversity of wildlife and not just in national parks or zoos.
Urban wildlife encounters are a fact we are very used to but foreign visitors might not take it in their stride as easily.
This short series of posts is aimed at making you more aware and empowering you with proper facts and information.
I will be borrowing from, and referencing to, various websites as there is a huge amount of information out there, if you look for it!
Today we will look at Spiders.
The most common creepy crawlies you will encounter are spiders. They love roof overhangs and some just can’t resist the tasty flies and mosquitos inside your home.
Most commonly found indoors are the “Rain Spider” , which is large by European standards and hairy to boot, and the “Daddy Long Legs” which seems to find its way into any room not in use for more than a day and fill it with cobwebs!
Now before you roll up the newspaper and start swotting – are spiders dangerous or just creepy?
The spider lovers of the South Africa Spider Club assure us that “In reality very few are dangerous to man and media reports exaggerating the dangers of spider bites are far out of proportion to the actual threat they pose.”
The full article entitled “Are Spiders Dangerous” is very much worth a read and you can follow this link:
This amazing Golden Orb spider has setup her permanent web (it really is gold in the sunlight) on our pot plant shelf (outside). The much smaller male is currently hiding in the back of the web, least she notices him and sends him packing. She has grown fast since she first started construction – in the second photograph you should be able to just make out her old “skin” on the left of the pot plant.
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- Golden Orb Spider
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- Golden Orb web in sunlight
In our next article we will look at snakes.
