Spiders

Many of the largest and most noticeable spiders reach maturity in September and start displaying or migrating in a search for a mate.

The most noticeable in our area are the house spider and its close relatives the hedge spider, garden spider and heath spider.

Both the garden and the heath spiders produce traditional cartwheel-shaped webs and can sometimes be seen digesting a meal.

These webs are large, complicated structures and require a lot of strong, silken threads to produce. Thus both of these spiders have large, over-developed abdomens to produce threads.

Despite this apparent similarity, they are easy to distinguish from each other as their abdomens have easily recognisable and prominent markings. The garden spider has a white cross while the heath spider has four large white spots.

As its name suggests, the garden spider is frequently found in gardens and in almost all habitats in the Wyre Forest district.

The heath spider is rarely found in gardens and, in my experience, is not too common on the district heaths. However, it does occur on many of the district's marshlands.

The heath spider is one of the largest of Britain's spiders and its body can sometimes reach 20mm in length.

It also produces a very strong web which requires some persistence to brush past. If you were not so fond of spiders a walk through the tall grasses of the marshes at this time of year would not be for you.

Another spider that causes arachnophobes some concern is the house spider which, as its name suggests, likes to live in the milder climate found within homes.

This month the males, which are slightly smaller than the females, can often be seen scurrying around homes as they seek out the tangled webs of female spiders.

We may not appreciate sharing our houses with them but they are very useful.

Firstly, they rid our houses of many potentially more destructive invertebrate pests.

Secondly, they are also bigger than the hedge spider. This is quite important because the hedge spider we often find living in funnel-shaped webs at the base of hedges or in among gorse, sets up a territory which it defends.

In the wild this is no problem but, in your house, this spider may run out and bite a foot that it believes has entered its territory.

Fortunately, the slightly bigger house spider will be able to prevent any of these hedge spiders from setting up home in our houses.