Artistry With Silk
According to weather folklore if spiders spin larger than usual webs and enter the house in great numbers, a snowy winter is supposed to be on tap. I’m a strong believer that Mother Nature has a way of preparing for an upcoming season. I’m not saying the signs are written in stone but when I observe the invasion of spiders into my house recently, I wonder.
Favorite habitat for the eight-legged creatures out-of-doors has been reported to be oak and hickory woods, rocks, logs and loose bark. Also rock bluffs and flat stones. All of which I have at my back door. Listed as favorite spots in the house are attics, boxes of papers, dresser drawers, porches, garages, utility rooms, clothes that have hung undisturbed, sinks and bathtubs. The latter area, being where I have been encountering various forms of the Arachnids in recent weeks.
I’m not afraid of spiders or even repulsed as some are by the leggy creatures; but I do feel somewhat vulnerable when in the tub, water streaming down, one scurries from behind the shower curtain. I’m not exactly dressed for battle or armed with anything to protect myself. So far they have all been common house spiders but the first questioning thought is always “brown recluse.” The recluse is common in Missouri and its bite can be dangerous to humans. A fatal bite is rare but the venom does destroy tissue around the bite and plastic surgery is often required.
For centuries, in Europe, spiders were blamed for everything from food and water poisoning to plagues. Spider bites were believed to be lethal, yet spider silk and even spiders themselves were often used in medical treatments. I can personally attest to the effectiveness of spider silk stopping the flow of blood. For some unknown reason Grandma Laura once related to me that G-Grandma Mary had always said a thick spider web wrapped around a deep wound would not only stop the bleeding but would form a bandage that assisted in swift healing.
One October evening when my children were small I was preparing a piece of sirloin steak for supper. It was cut of meat that required tenderizing and I was pounding it with a large butcher knife. My three year-old daughter, was standing on a kitchen chair surveying the process. Needing to rinse my hands at the sink, I turned momentarily and that was all the time required for my little girl to grab, for some unknown reason, the sharp knife blade and then simultaneously tumble onto the floor. The impact cut a deep gash in the area where her thumb connected to her hand.
I snatched her from the floor, wondering what I could do to stop the blood flow. All the while aware I had a four year old son in the yard and an eighteen month old infant in the playpen. Their father was not home from work yet, I had no car, no telephone and lived at the end of a mile long farm lane. From somewhere in the recesses of my memory I recalled the spider web “bandage” story from G-Grandma Mary. Earlier in the day I had noted a large thick web in the corner of the side porch and now desperation moved me to swipe it down and wrap it tightly around the deep incision on the tiny hand. Strangely enough the blood flow ceased, I left the silky web on under a gauze bandage and what should have been an ugly scar is totally undetectable today. That experience taught me the value of seeing truth and beauty in humble things and to know that often man is aided by seemingly simple incidents.
The lives of the spiders, if we would take the time to watch them, hold a multitude of stories. Some can live for a year and a half without food; others carry their young on their backs like opossums. Some have two sets of eyes, one for the daytime, the other for the night. Spiders were our first spinners and weavers, the very first maker of nets and seines. But they have also been represented in literature as evil symbols enmeshing and destroying victims. Spiders represent the total embodiment of malicious cunning and trickery. Despite their bad press, it is a fact that we would be “up to our buts in flies” if it were not for the predatory spider devouring 99% of them.
Frequently spiders do attack each other and occasionally the female will put a stop to a male’s courtship by simply devouring him. And sometimes she will mate and then make him the main entrée for dinner. Even if he survives sex he is not likely long for this world as most spiders live only one year.
Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and my youngest daughter suffered a large dose. Why a spider brought on panic attacks in her, I have no clue. I had hoped that Charlotte’s Web, a wonderful children’s book, would give her a different perspective on what she described as “eight legged devils”. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages in her webs praising Wilbur. Charlotte is assisted by Templeton, a gluttonous barn rat, in making Wilbur famous and saving his life. Wilbur goes to the County fair and wins a prize. It is a charming story featuring the spider’s skill in weaving but it still failed to cure her phobia.
That mysterious art of spinning was shown to me from horseback one early morning. It was a grassy field and the combination of heavy dew and the angle of sunlight highlighted thousands of delicate webs attached to the grasses. Their ability to spin silk is the characteristic that sets them apart and drives researchers to uncover their secrets of how they create artistry in silk.
