Around this time of year the garden fills with these little Orb Weavers Araneus diadematus. These little spiders are first seen in the spring in little clusters of the tiny spiders holding together in a ball for survival. But as late August roles around these spiders start to get to their largest sizes and fill the yard and garden with their many webs.

Orb weavers come in many types but the ones I see in my yard are sometimes called European Garden spiders ( Also found in North America) or Cross spiders. This little Orb Weaver is harmless to people being docile and not interested in biting unless provoked. It is however a veracious predator in the garden consuming a large variety of insects throughout the spring summer and fall. August and September seem to be the months when the most variety of prey is taken as this is when the spiders are at their largest and most able to take down more powerful opponents. I have witnessed these spiders taking down yellow jacket wasps on occasion using their web to quickly subdue the formidable prey.

Spider Mating a Dangerous Affair

At this stage in the season these spiders also seem to be looking for mates. Mating in this species is a dangerous affair for the male.  You can sometimes witness  the male spider approaching the much larger females while tapping on her web cautiously. If things go wrong, the male is often made into a meal before it has a chance to successfully mate.

These Orb Weavers as the name indicates create beautiful orb shaped webs. They construct and take back down these webs on a regular basis. When the webbing is taken down either by accident or by the spider itself these spiders will often then consume the webbing to recycle it.

It is hard to miss these spiders this time of year in my yard. It is a constant battle not to accidentally walk into their webs. But they are fascinating and important part of the garden and really worth respect and admiration.

Dandelions are the bane of the lawn enthusiasts existence. The beautiful green suburban pastures ruined with these hard to get rid of weeds. But are they really so bad? Or are they even good to have around? Here are a just few reasons why they are actually a good thing for your Garden and the critters that live in it.

Good for the Pollinators

During the early spring many of the pollinators favourite plants are still just getting started for the year. Dandelions however have usually made an appearance and provide much needed food and energy for emerging beneficial insects. One common and important one are Bumble Bee Queens who are out in often cool mornings looking to establish a nest. Dandelions can literally be the difference for the struggling Queens survival.

Helping Garden Predators

Wasps might not be as kindly looked on by people as bees are. They are more fearsome looking than a fuzzy Bumblebee and lets face it, they are a bit pushy when you are enjoying a meal outside, especially the Yellowjacket varsity. But these insects are immensely important for a healthy garden as they are top predators keeping insects who harm plants under control. While adult wasps feed primarily on carbohydrates, they do prey on other insects to feed their growing young. For many wasp, just as bees, Dandelions are an important food source when other sources are not available.

They are Actually Nice to Look At

We are mostly taught to hate weeds, but this has always perplexed me. The flowering Dandelions look very striking and can be a great addition to your garden. On top of that they do not require any maintenance, watering, or fertilizer. They are drought resistant, hardy and can grow almost anywhere. I am not suggesting turning your lawn into a sea of Dandelions but just consider if you need to remove them everywhere. There are many places in the yard where they make great bright yellow additions to the yard and many beneficial critters that will appreciate it.

There are many reasons to like Dandelions and these are just a few. These plants are certainly helpful to people and much healthier to your yard than you might think. The Bee has come a long way in peoples appreciation. Maybe some of the less liked insects and plants will make there way there too.

This is the time of year a tiny moth starts to make its appearance around my garden.  Alucitidae or Many plumed Moths are found primarily in Europe but in my parts (Vancouver Island) the one that is seen is the Twenty Plume Moth. These are considered “micromoths” and get their name due to their wing design. Unlike regular moths that have large scaled wings these plume moths have just that, feather like plumes that make up their wing set. In the case of the twenty plume moth there are again, as the name suggests approximately 20 of these plumes per wing.

These little moths are very small and have a wingspan of only around 14mm. Twenty Plume Moths are often found around the garden area with their wings spread out like little fans. Along with their small size and colouration they also tend to camouflage well into the bark of trees. This  can make them a little difficult to spot sometimes. You might have better luck to notice them if they make their way into your home attracted to the light. I find a cup and paper the best way to scoop them up and set them free as they tend to flutter from the paper and land safely in the glass.



Even when spotted these tiny moths when viewed with the naked eye can be easy to overlook as just a small grey insect. But when you look close you really can see the amazing anatomy these creatures have evolved into. The pattern is quite striking and the design of the wings is really very impressive. So many of the small critters of our gardens get passed over but they really have a lot to offer if you take the time to look close. They can be some of the most beautiful and amazing cool creepy critters someone can come across.

This could be the original odd couple . Back on July 1st I tweeted about this strange living relationship between this garden spider and this nest of wasps. These two species had been living seemingly peacefully for almost two weeks at the point of my first tweet.

Several days later they were still apparently friendly

A few days ago I checked the location again and to my disappointment I did not see the spider. Yellow Jacket Wasps are powerful warriors and formidable predators. While as adults they tend to consume primarily carbohydrates with sugar rich foods like fruits and tree sap. However they do also collect meats which they feed to their young larva. Spiders in turn do sometimes prey on wasps if the spider is large enough and the wasp is adequately subdued in the spiders web.

This morning I decided to have another look, and low and behold , they are sill living side by side (see top image). The spider looks quite healthy and seems to have put on size since the first photos. It makes me wonder if the disappearance of the spider was perhaps due to it molting.



Both spiders and wasps are considered very beneficial to humans as both remove a large amount of pest insects and so are important for agriculture. Bees have gotten a lot of good press in recent years about how important they are in pollination and while this is great, many other species also deserve a more positive spotlight.

The other day I noticed a little blue Damselfly so went back inside and grabbed my camera. When I came back I found this impressive Robber Fly instead. It was probably good for the Damselfly that it had moved on with this character around as Damselflies are a known prey item of these amazing insects.

Asilidae often called Robber Flies or Assassin Flies are powerful predators who often lie in wait in hot sunny areas of the garden. I have noticed this location on sunny flat vegetation is a favorite spot to find them. Robber Flies are truly amazing creatures and I would suspect are overlooked by people but they are fascinating predators of the garden. If you are lucky enough to notice one in the garden there is no need to be alarmed. They are not aggressive or dangerous to people but that said they should not be handled as they can and will defend themselves with a painful bite if threatened. They generally will be sitting motionless scanning the surrounding area for a potential meal.

A Necessary Brute of the Sky

Like any healthy ecosystem top predators like the Robber Fly are necessary to maintain the balance and health of that ecosystem so they are an important part of the garden. Depending on the location some Robber Flies can be very colourful and some even mimic other species like bumblebees. Most Robber Flies are powerfully built and can take down larger prey even having been known to capture and consume other top predators like wasps and dragonflies.  When prey is captured a saliva containing toxin is injected through a powerful piercing proboscis which both paralyzes the prey and at the same time liquefies its tissue. The prey can then be consumed similar to how a spider consumes its prey.

Robber Flies are definitely what I would call Cool and Creepy Critters.

This tiny little jumping spider I noticed on my deck. It has caught something, but I could not make out exactly what. The size of this spider was so small that I could only really notice details at magnification but it appeared to be perhaps another spider that had fallen prey to this little powerhouse arachnid. In any case whatever it had caught I am pretty sure to him it was just called lunch.

*update

Thanks to TurnFear2Fascination on twitter for the ID on this spider as a Salticus species! According to others who have viewed the photo it does appear to be another spider that has ended up as meal for this little guy. I often witness jumping spiders making prey of other spider species. Sometimes I will even witness some jumping spiders plucking at other spiders webs seemingly trying to entice its potential meal out. Of course interactions with these spiders happens so fast it is often hard to have a camera at the ready. These jumping spiders in particular are hard to capture as they are so extremely small. To give context to size this one that is photographed is on the arm of a deck chair.

My What Big Eyes You Have

One feature all jumping spiders is that two of their eyes (Spiders have more than two) are very oversized. This gives jumping spiders a cuteness quality that is not always observed in others spider species. Of course these eyes serve a purpose helping the spider track and ambush its prey. Some Jumping spiders such as the Portia jumping spider (who feeds on other spiders) are observed carefully examining their environment to plan their attacks.

Jumping spider are truly fascinating predators of the garden and there are no shortages of shapes and sizes of them to observe.

Jumping spiders are amazing in so many ways, but one thing I always love about them is their seemingly inquisitive behaviour. This little jumping spider seemed every bit as interested in me as I was in him. It followed my every move with his large eyes and motioned left to right with the movements of my camera. There is something undeniably cute about these fearsome tiny garden predators.


It can be pretty amazing to see these little spiders follow and track your hand as you move it along in front of them. Their vision is truly something amazing being able to look up as watch movement several feet away. Of course all this visual ability is for a reason, one probably not so cute to the prey that ends up on the other end of it. Jumping spiders use this vision to not only locate prey, but calculate distances. In at least one example the Portia jumping spider can formulate tactics to capture and consume other formidable spiders.

I noticed this little Assassin Bug crawling up a door frame. At first I really didn’t realize what I was looking at. On closer look I spotted the fearsome proboscis tucked up under its body, which it uses to puncture and consume its prey.  I definitely very cool critter.