Eggs

Here is a completely different sort of nest to the one I posted yesterday. Our red back is still doing her thing happily and now has two egg sacs to boot. I've been reading a bit about these eggs:

Life cycle


Once the female has mated, she can store sperm and use it over a period of up to two years to lay several batches of eggs. She spends much time producing up to ten round egg sacs (1cm diameter), which are white, weathering to brown over time. Each egg sac contains approximately 250 eggs and only one to three weeks need to pass before more eggs can be laid. These sacs are suspended within the web. Sometimes small ichneumonid wasps parasitise them, puncturing each sac with tiny holes. The young spiderlings hatch in two to four weeks. Spiderlings are cannibalistic and will eat unhatched eggs and other spiderlings.  The spiderlings disperse by ballooning to another suitable nest site on long silk threads that are caught by air currents.

Females mature on average in about four months. The smaller male matures on average in about 90 days. Females may live for two to three years, whereas males only live for about six or seven months.

I'm still in two minds about her being here, but Mr B said the other option is that he can squish her and I don't like the idea of that; she's not doing any harm and we're just steering clear of her.

The weekend has just begun and we're about to take Cousteau and little Maggie for a walk before it starts to rain.

Happy weekend all.


~Barking~