Tiny Orb Weaver Mother with Egg Sac (2 more pix below!)

Oh, how I love living in the middle of such a wild place! Our home sits on 26 acres and all around us are miles of fields, woods, hills and wild lands. It's a dream come true for me, as I've always wanted to live close to nature! In fact, we've had plenty of wildlife INSIDE our house, including wayward ground squirrels, birds, mice, voles, crickets, flies, ladybugs, a praying mantis, many other insects and arthopods,,, and plenty of spiders too. Happily, most of the critters don't find their way inside!

I found this beautiful tiny orb weaver spider tending an egg sac on the wall outside our front door. She was only about 1/3" in diameter (including legs), and stood guard over her egg sac day in and day out. Eventually the babies hatched and she protected them for the several days they were there. I watched over the course of a few days as they eventually drifted away to find a life in the big wide world! I thought that would be it, but I was wrong! She made ANOTHER egg sac, and a couple of weeks later, another bunch of babies hatched and I got to see the sweet little guys crawling around until they too, left for their Great Adventure. Surely this was it, right? NO! Mama Spider made two more egg sacs over the next month and then, after the last one had hatched, I looked one day and both the babies and Mama were gone. It's kind of funny to feel wistful over a little spider, but I enjoyed checking in on her every day when I went outside. I expect she's died now after completing her life's mission, but she can feel proud that she raised four hatches of baby spiders and protected all of them faithfully as any mother would do! Hooray for tiny spiders! :)