She’s waiting!

The weather here is still pretty warm, and to my dismay, about a week ago I noticed yet another wasps’ nest being constructed in a corner of the porch roof, against the house, and not far away from the front door.

At the same time, I noticed that, directly under the wasps’ nest, a very large and beautiful black and yellow spider was artfully spinning a gorgeous web.    During the next few days, the web grew larger. It’s so large now it’s about 2 feet across and stretches from the overhang of the roof near the next, to a pillar about 3 feet away.  The web is also angled perfectly to catch those annoying and useless bee-wannabees; I wondered how much intelligence actually went into the spiders’ building of that web, since it’s so perfectly situated to be a perfect trap for any who try to leave the immediate vicinity.

Last week, I  bought a can of wasp and hornet killer, which can be aimed from about 20 feet away and will kill the wasps and destroy their nest, but my daughter begged me not to do that, because the fallout from the blast would also destroy the spider’s intricate creation, which is really quite lovely.  I also realized that the way the spider built it was perfect for trapping the wasps.  So we decided to wait and see what happens.

The spider has been waiting patiently in her web for over a week now, but the wasps haven’t gone near her web at all!    There aren’t any other insects caught in the web either, which makes me wonder how Ms. Spidey is managing to get food! But still she sits quietly and waits.  Even Job would not have been as patient.    I’m sure she’s waiting for one of the wasps to make one dumb move, but I’m beginning to doubt that’s going to happen. They might have outsmarted her.

I’m going to give it another few days. If by this weekend, she still hasn’t caught any wasps,  I’m going to Raid that nest and its unpleasant stinging residents, regardless of what effect that might have on Spidey.    I hate to kill her, but I don’t know how much longer I can tolerate those wasps either.  She’s not doing her job well enough. Either that, or the wasps are too smart for her.