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My garden spider

This Black and Yellow Garden Spider has been in the yard for days now - first she made her web right beside the duck water . . . I told her to find another place! The next day her web was across the gate into the yard - fortunately I saw it before I walked into it! So yesterday she made a web inside the chicken enclosure . . . at least it's in an area I can avoid and it's mostly too high for the chickens to destroy. She is catching flies, so I guess all is well!

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 - from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Black and yellow garden spider
(Argiope aurantia)

True to its name, the black and yellow garden spider is often seen in and around gardens. These spiders are orb-weavers, meaning that they spin their webs in a circle or an orb. These webs can be up to 2 feet across, while the spiders themselves can have a leg span of nearly 2.5 inches! Females are much larger than the males, and often times, these spiders will decorate their web with a zig-zag of white silk. Black and yellow garden spiders prefer to build their webs in sunny areas and often will rebuild their webs every day.


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