Go Find It!

Look for the wheel-shaped webs of yellow garden spiders in meadows, gardens, and backyards. For more on these web-slinging wonders, crawl over to mdc.mo.gov/field-guide.

Yellow Garden Spider

Big Mamas

A female garden spider’s body (minus her long legs) can be up to an inch long with yellow and black marks on her abdomen.

Little Daddies

Male garden spiders are mostly brown and much smaller than females. Males often build a small, rarely seen web near a female’s large, showy web.

Web Warning

Garden spiders spin a zigzag of silk in the center of their webs. Biologists think this may make the web easier for birds to see, so they don’t crash into it.

Shake It Off

When a garden spider detects a potential predator, she may shake her web violently to scare it away.

Fishing for Flies

When flies and other insects become tangled in the sticky web, the spider crawls down, wraps them in silk, and injects venom.