Caroline Elfferich (56) does not have to think long about her most beautiful spider moment. ‘That was a few years ago’, says the spider lover. The spectacle was so beautiful that she reached for her lawn chair and poured herself a cup of coffee. ‘Because when you look at spiders, you can encounter such surprising situations.’
In this case, a garden spider had caught a dragonfly in her giant web. The spider was ready to take the first bite of her prey. “But then a wasp came, and it had its sights on the dragonfly too.”
Again and again the frustrated garden spider tried to scare the wasp away. Menacingly, she held out her raised front legs. But the wasp was cheeky and kept coming back. And the cross spider? ‘She only threatened, she didn’t dare to do more. Apparently a spider realizes that a wasp can be dangerous.’
That’s how fascinating spiders can be, Elfferich just wants to say. The biologist – spider T-shirt and hat – even wrote a book about it a few years ago: Spin the Basic Guide.
This Saturday she will be in the garden of Hans Zweekhorst (69), a spider lover friend in Delfgauw. It’s the national spider count. Across the country, an estimated several hundred spider enthusiasts had spiders in and around their homes this weekend.
‘Oh, cool. Look at a maternity web spider.’ Together, Elfferich and Zweekhorst stroll through the thousand square meters of garden and talk about spider signal wires, spider sperm mats and spider hunting techniques. Zweekhorst once photographed two mating garden spiders in his garden. That was very special to see, he says. ‘The male tugs at the female’s web, then withdraws, and then approaches again. It’s a very gradual process.’ Wow, responds Elfferich. ‘And look here’, says Zweekhorst when he stands near a large web where a garden spider is devouring a black creature. “He’s got prey.”
The aim of the national spider counting weekend is to gain insight into the latest spider trends: which species are on the rise and which are seen less often. The Netherlands has about 650 species of spiders. The most frequently seen species in recent years was the garden spider, followed by the large vibrating spider and the house spider. But as a result of climate change, new species have also been added in recent years.
For example, the oval pine jumper was on the rise last year. And this week it was announced that the ‘poisonous’ false wolf spider has now established itself in our country. Previously, the spider – whose bite can be compared to a wasp sting – was only seen in southern Europe. Four years ago he was seen about forty times a year in the Netherlands, now that is five hundred times a year. ‘This weekend I received forty e-mails from people who sent a photo with the question: is this a false wolf spider?’, says Jinze Noordijk, spider researcher at EIS Knowledge Center Insects. In five cases it was indeed the southern newcomer.
church six eye
Zweekhorst also recently found a newcomer in his garden: the Kerkzesoog. A spider with a jet-black body that prefers to live in holes in walls and is advancing more and more to the north within the Netherlands. But Zweekhorst has not yet seen the ‘poisonous’ false wolf spider. He finds it a pity that the media immediately emphasizes ‘toxic’. “If some madman grabs me, I’ll give him a thump too. It’s not that crazy that a spider bites in such a situation.’
In addition, all spiders are poisonous, Noordijk adds. However, the jaws of most species are not strong enough for human skin. ‘But even a large garden spider can bite if you squeeze it. That also feels like a wasp sting.’
The false wolf spider is therefore not so special in that regard, he says. ‘He only bites occasionally. He especially has his name against it: ‘false’ in this case means that it is not a real wolf spider, but strongly resembles it. People are misled by that name.’
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Nevertheless, Elfferich and Zweekhorst understand that people can be afraid of spiders. ‘I was like that as a little girl,’ says Elfferich. As soon as she and her brother saw a spider in the house, they started screaming. “That only changed after my mother named one of the spiders: Nicky.”
And take a normal house spider, continues Zweekhorst. ‘He can run very fast with his hairy dark legs, that does indeed look quite frightening.’ Nevertheless, he, Elfferich and Noordijk hope that more people will take the time to take a good look at spiders. After all, humans and spiders live close together. Noordijk: ‘We hope for more understanding and acceptance for the spider.’
Spiders can simply be beautiful, adds Zweekhorst, who has 146 spiders and sixteen species in his garden this Saturday. As far as he is concerned, one of the most beautiful of this weekend is the Heliophanus: ‘A very funny spider’. His two short legs on his head are yellow and green. And when the sun shone on it on Saturday afternoon, it started to shine beautifully. Awesome.’