Problems With the 'Net'

What a morning! It was getting pretty late, 830 or so, and yet it was still dead calm. I liked how the mountain bike ride started off, but then again, there was nothing in particular to focus on. Hmmm...

Except these spider webs. Thirty of them were catching the glancing morning light.

 
 

Typically there was a one inch diameter hole underneath the spider web. It seemed like the perfect size for a mouse. But how did the mouse get through the spider web without tearing it up?

Could the hole be the residence of the spider itself? A tarantula needs a residence that big. Do tarantulas weave webs, too? Think how big the fiber would have to be to support their weight! There is so much about nature that I need to learn.

But I had to chuckle when I realized why these spider webs grabbed my eyes, besides the glancing light: the last few posts have been about adapting to summer, by several means. Among them is switching from sleeping on thermal insulators to sleeping on screen/mesh/netting. The spider web reminded me of the cargo nets I've been looking at!

I looked up some facts on tarantulas. They don't spin webs for catching prey, but they do produce silk for other purposes. But I enjoyed the silly image of a heavy tarantula walking across a web that could barely support it. That's as ludicrous as a heavy ol' RV camper wallowing on a net bed at night, with the fibers singing with tension.

I suspect a mesh bed would be cooler at night than my 4" self-inflating pad (air mattress.) But if you wake up with a sore back, it wouldn't be worth the trouble and expense. All of homework has not been for nothing: it was fun learning about grommets and using hot melt glue on the edge of the netting. (I can't sew.) 

This was a nice example of using chance experiences to make learning about something, interesting.