There are so many spiders at our place. Our guests are very cautious when visiting and I’m quite sure a few leave traumatised as they have a spider phobia or something. I don’t particularly like spiders either but if they’re not sitting on me I’m ok with being near them.
Every spring we have funnel webs on our window frames. I’d wondered at what spider it could be until I spied it on my lace netting. In the middle of the day, mind you.
Of course, I was intrigued, called the children over to observe it. We went over to our spider chart to see if it was listed there. It turned out to be a common Black House Spider.
We wanted to know how dangerous this spider was, so we researched it online and discovered the female spider is venomous. Not lethally so, but it will give a very painful bite where one would experience swelling and a burning sensation. So, Kids! Stay away from female spiders.
We took a photo before it ran away to its safe place. We sketched it in the nature journals and labelled the spiders anatomy while noticing the differences between spiders and insects in general.
I seized the learning opportunity and read a poem named ‘Spiders’ by Janet Bruno.
While the children were using the poem as copy work in their journals I found a scientific sketches of a spider by naturalist, Brigitte Rubaek we could examine.
Do you have Black House Spiders at your place? Do you mind having them around?
What would you suggest would be a great addition to our study of spiders?
Yes. The little lad had one crawling on his leg. I had only just unhoused (de-webbed) our laundry windows. He was quite ok with it on him but as we studied and discovered they are venomous, he developed formication (the feeling of spiders crawling on you) We read and looked up anatomy and types and studied eggs sacs and webs. I was worried he had lost his gall with arachnids, when he suddenly leapt over me shouting “Another black house spider!” And caught the male counterpart in his observation jar
I’m happy to hear he is unafraid of spiders after his experience and was ready to capture another for observation. I like how you studied the spiders anatomy, webs and egg sacks after the sighting as he would have been invested in what you were reading/showing him.