When she died, I promised her I would make sure that her babies stayed safe until they emerged from their protective sacs. Just one problem: late Summer rains created flooding in our yard with a gully-washer that swept around the base of the same wall Priscilla had made her home. Deterioration of the bottom of the wall means that we must replace it and deal with drainage issues in the yard around it. Otherwise, we'll get water in the house each time we have a hard rain.
I panicked when I heard this because of Priscilla's babies. I knew they would either be knocked down to their deaths or have to be moved. I searched online for a way to move them but found nothing....So, my own brain began to work it out. I had to find a way to move them to a secure location before the wall was scheduled to be repaired.
I decided that I would use a thin piece of cardboard (of which I have many stashed in my "art supply center") with a piece of fabric glued to it, hoping the webbing would adhere to the fabric. I would (easily) slide the fabric-covered cardboard along the top of the webbing to "grab" the egg sacs (which of course would be dangling freely and happily beneath it), carefully transport them to their new location, and attach the cardboard to the soffit with nails, where the sacs would safely hang until the babies emerged.
Sounds great in theory, but I had no idea if it would work. There was only one way to find out...
The egg sacs in their original location
On Sunday, I got my sweetie (whom I'd already convinced of the importance of this) to help me with the "egg sac relocation." Step by step I proceeded with my plan: cardboard (Check!), fabric (Check!), fabric glued to cardboard (Check!), folded duck tape on back of cardboard to stick it up and hold it in place at the new location while tacking it (my smart sweetie's idea - Check!), hammer and nails (Check!)... Now all we need are the egg sacs...
...cardboard slipped above webbing under soffit to easily grab the egg sacs (with my sweeties hands underneath to catch them, just in case)...(Check??) "Wow, it's really sticky and dense. It's not really moving; it won't let go on it's own. I'll have to pull it down. It's YELLOW! It's so beautiful. It feels weird. OK, here I go....!"
So, I manually detached the webbing from the soffit, doing my best not to disturb the egg sacs as I dismantled their support system: "It's not sticking to the fabric. I'll have to wrap it around somehow so it will stay and they will keep hanging...Whoops! Sorry little babies! They just went sideways for a second; hang on! Oh, it's OK little babies; you're moving to a new home. Just hang in there!"
That's pretty much how it went for the 5 or so minutes it took to detach them while keeping them hanging freely in the beautiful and protective golden webbing Momma Priscilla had created for them. Oh, how I hated to pull that down! "I'm sorry little ones! Bear with me; this will just take a second! Almost there.... GOT IT!"
I was so happy to have them freely hanging below the fabric-cardboard bus of theirs, completely intact although a bit jumbled within the now-defunct golden webbing around them. My sweetie and I carefully carried them to their new location around the corner, set the cardboard in place and tacked it up. Then I worked to carefully rearrange their golden webbing so that it looked more as it did before I moved them, and so they were hanging down rather than sideways...
The egg sacs in their new location
Then, we took a bit of man-made webbing from Halloween and I did my best to recreate the kind of protective "shield" Momma Priscilla had set over them from the soffit above to the wall below. I stretched it as thinly as I could to imitate her skillfully laid shielding. Hers was far more artistic and graceful than mine. I have a new-found respect for these amazing creatures and the webs they weave.
Notice how visible my "webbing" is compared to Momma Priscilla's original webbing. I stretched it quite a bit to get it thin, although you can't really tell that in the picture. I may remove it once they are born. Somehow, these little egg sacs look much more vulnerable hanging here than they did where Momma Priscilla had set up house. Maybe that was part of why she put them where she did? Next time (if there is a next time), I'll pick a more camouflaged bus!
DONE! The beautiful egg sacs are now hanging just outside our back door where we can monitor them closely and send them lots of love until their birthdays... Looking at pictures of the babies online, I suspect we might regret this decision later...but hey, it works for now! (Shhhh! Don't tell my sweetie.)
Baby Garden Spiders
At the end of it all, we felt rather pleased and proud of what we'd managed to do. We have no idea if it worked or not; we won't know until the Spring when it will be time for these tiny creatures to emerge from their egg sacs. What we can say is that we did our best and that we wait with excitement and anticipation for the big Springtime "due date" (whenever that is).
I'd say that was a pretty good adventure on this A Year To Love journey...
This adventure in a year to Love made me smile from ear to ear X
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