It was an Epic Struggle

[Flying Turtle]

Almost like David and Goliath, when Mister Ant wandered into the web of Miss Spidey. The ant put up quite a struggle, but the little spider, body no bigger than the head of a pin, proceeded to tie up and paralyze the intruder. The whole battle lasted about fifteen minutes. After the ant stopped moving spidey seemed to rest for a minute or so, then began pulling the prize higher into the web.

Geoff

 

[Per-Sev]

:touche:I guess I am not the only one who has some extra time to kill. Cool pic.

 

[jtr1962]

This is one reason I don't kill spiders in the house. They get rid of any number of other insect pests. I occasionally find the empty shells of ants in the basement. The ants are a nuisance and usually come into the house starting in early May. There would be a lot more of them if not for the spiders. They help get rid of flying pests, like mosquitoes, also.

 

[Black Rose]

I don't kill spiders in the house either.

However, once they grow to a certain size, or start bungee jumping at us from the doorways, they are caught and escorted outdoors where they can continue their adventures.

 

[LED_Thrift]

I've seen two interesting spider/prey events.

One where a yellowjacket wasp was snared in a web between the window and the storm window. It was able to move quite a bit, but not break free. The spider, not wanting to loose such a big meal and realizing that the wasp would break free unless something was done, came out and was spinning more silk to trap the wasp completely. The wasp got a few bites into the spider, but the spider seemed to be securing the wasp securely. As the spider went around to the back of the wasp, the wasp started stinging in desperation. At least one caught the spider, and it started to move less energtically. In about one minute the spider wasn't moving, and the wasp could just barely wiggle. A few minutes later both were dead.

Another time I noticed a wasp [a thin-bodied type] flying by a web near my back door and the wasp was flying up to the web just to touch it gently but not hard enough to be snared by it. It did this about five times, near the same spot on the web. This alerted the spider, which must have thought that something was snared in that spot, and it came out to try to secure it. When the spider reached the spot the wasp had been touching the wasp swooped in, grabbed the spider and flew off. I'm guessing it stung the spider, but I didn't really see that. When it first flew off, it was flying slow and not gaining altitude. It landed about four feet away from the web, paused and re-gripped the spider, and took off about five seconds after landing. It flew much better after adjusting its load, and I didn't notice the spider moving. I wished I had been filming that one. It was an interesting technique, and I'm sure the wasp gets snagged once in a while when attempting it.

Scoring summary: Wasps 2 -- Spiders 1