This Garden Spider had the truly brilliant idea of building her web between the plastic hanging sections of the Boy Wonder’s swing, where it was effectively invisible, and any unwary insect flying up or down the garden might easily hit it and find itself caught. The main victim here is, of course, a Green Shieldbug, but there’s at least one fly wrapped up in the same parcel. The unforeseen flaw in her plan was that a small boy might decide to use the swing before she’d finished her meal, and demand that someone move her.
I was summoned from the kitchen, where I was tidying up after lunch (“No, I don’t want this*. No, not this one either. It’s not nice.** No potato, thank you. NO – no peas! I do like this chicken though. Yes please, I would like some more. I’ve had enough chicken now – can I have pudding? Mmmm! What’s it called?*** I LOVE it! Can I have two more lots?”), to deal with the situation, and was quite proud that R and I managed to catch predator, prey, and a portion of the web across the rim of a glass. I gently brushed the web across the surface of a recently pruned Viburnum juddii, where it caught and held, and the spider – though clearly a bit discombobulated – managed to hang on to both web and Shieldbug.
I went back to the swing and reported my success, and pretty soon the Boy decided that he needed to go and see the spider again for himself. By this time she was eating the Shieldbug and I expected him to be grossed out by this, but he wasn’t, and I was able to do a little careful teaching about predation, and the fact that everything has its place within the ecosystem. He thought about this, frowning, for a few moments after I’d finished speaking, and then said, “But why did she wrap the Shieldbug up though?”
Pragmatic rather than philosophical: he’s a Boy after my own heart.
* Roasted carrot
** Roasted parsnip
*** Sticky toffee pudding
