This post is to share an extraordinary experience we had on Islay and is about spiders.
While walking near the sea over well-established dunes covered in grasses, we could see many threads of spiders’ gossamer criss-crossing the ground in front of us. There was no 'web' as such, none of the circular constructions held together by threads radiating from the centre, only single threads about 2-3 feet long in the grass. But as we turned a corner and headed towards the gateway leading out from the dunes, the density of these threads increased and when we looked towards the gateway, with the low sun shining down on it, we could see that the ground there was covered in what looked like white candy floss: it was literally a blanket of spiders' web about 4 yards long by 2 yards wide and maybe 2-4 inches thick.
We have never seen anything remotely like this before. We couldn't see any spiders at first but then we found several tiny ones walking over our jackets and backpacks. This web construction must have required the efforts of hundreds (maybe thousands) of these tiny spiders. We walked around this rather than trample it, and noted that there were streamers of gossamer floating in the breeze but anchored to the wooden poles of the wire fencing that led to the gateway. It was astonishing. More astonishing still was that we returned the next day and all of this was gone. The was no sign that there had ever been a spiders' gossamer blanket there at all. Back home we have regular spiders webs on the outside of our house that persisted there for weeks despite wind and rain and yet here was a veritable blanket of the stuff and overnight it was gone without a trace!
I could speculate that the blanket served to protect a population of 'baby' spiders and they ate it (hence its disappearance) but spiders don't have chewing mouthparts do they?
We have been here on this island 20 times at this time of year and never seen anything similar before. Has anyone else seen anything like this?
Lee
While walking near the sea over well-established dunes covered in grasses, we could see many threads of spiders’ gossamer criss-crossing the ground in front of us. There was no 'web' as such, none of the circular constructions held together by threads radiating from the centre, only single threads about 2-3 feet long in the grass. But as we turned a corner and headed towards the gateway leading out from the dunes, the density of these threads increased and when we looked towards the gateway, with the low sun shining down on it, we could see that the ground there was covered in what looked like white candy floss: it was literally a blanket of spiders' web about 4 yards long by 2 yards wide and maybe 2-4 inches thick.
We have never seen anything remotely like this before. We couldn't see any spiders at first but then we found several tiny ones walking over our jackets and backpacks. This web construction must have required the efforts of hundreds (maybe thousands) of these tiny spiders. We walked around this rather than trample it, and noted that there were streamers of gossamer floating in the breeze but anchored to the wooden poles of the wire fencing that led to the gateway. It was astonishing. More astonishing still was that we returned the next day and all of this was gone. The was no sign that there had ever been a spiders' gossamer blanket there at all. Back home we have regular spiders webs on the outside of our house that persisted there for weeks despite wind and rain and yet here was a veritable blanket of the stuff and overnight it was gone without a trace!
I could speculate that the blanket served to protect a population of 'baby' spiders and they ate it (hence its disappearance) but spiders don't have chewing mouthparts do they?
We have been here on this island 20 times at this time of year and never seen anything similar before. Has anyone else seen anything like this?
Lee
