wall spider VS fire ant..

arlon · Post by **arlon** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:14 am

I was watching a fire ant crawl across the brick when a little blur shoots out of a tiny web and starts running very fast circles around the ant. I watched for a minute trying to figure out why the spider was running circles around the ant and then I noticed he was "trussing" up the ant for lunch. We have 100's of these little spiders around the house. No wonder we never see a bug in our house. They don't have a chance of getting past the wall spiders..

Wall spider vs ant in a morter joint between the bricks:

Wall spider sitting on a regular tooth pick. These are tiny little spiders!

Much larger image CLICK_HERE

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:29 am

Excellent photos Arlon. Boy they are small compared to the toothpic

That guy is a regular bull roper.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:21 am

It's really amazing just what is going on EVERYWHERE in nature. The behaviour of the tiny wall spider is extraordinary - although obviously a very successful tactic against ant sized prey.

The two pics really complement the posting too - action and good detail.

Bruce

arlon · Post by **arlon** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:12 pm

These little guys are really fun to watch. They have a "house" about the size of a dime. I guess they run feeler webs out from their nest because all an ant has to do is get within a few inches of a nest and he's toast. These little spiders are amazingly fast for their size. I think the spiders must keep tabs on their feeler lines then run out and attack when something steps on one. They are easy to get out just by dragging a toothpick close to their home. More fun is to poke a stick in an ant bed and drop a dozen ants on the window sill and see if any ants make a clean getaway. Not many do (please don't report this behavior to any animal rights groups..). Arlon

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:54 am

Maybe these are what we have where I work. They are really tiny little spiders and they are everywhere it seems. Rarely have I gotten a good look at one, though quite hard to see and I get bitten by them often enough when moving boxes around. The bites do not cause anything more than that equating to a mosquitoe bite and are quite itchy. Nice set of images arlon