GREENSBORO, NC -- It seems the kids' questions have spurred some big kids to ask questions! 2 Wants to Know had an adult ask us, "What spider weaves a web on bushes and shrubs this time of year?"
Exploreit.org counts 3,000 species of spiders in North America alone. When it comes to the world, there are 35,000 species of spiders. To find out which spider makes the webs we want to know about, we head to the Greensboro Science Center and Rick Bolling.
From time to time, you have seen a lot of spider webs with dew all over them in the morning when you get up. You might see them throughout the day or in the evenings, especially after a light rain. We see a lot of those webs this time of the year along the grass, low shrubbery and in the bushes around your house.
Most of these little webs are made from spiders called funnel spiders or grass spiders. These are small tiny spiders. The spiders hatch out throughout the summer and begin to grow. When they reach the adult size, they begin to make their webs down in the grass.
The webs are there to catch other little insects. The webs will usually have a sticky substance on them to help trap the prey when they land on them. They won't harm the vegetation. You may not like the look of them when there is a whole lot of them around but it is a very interesting cycle of life for these small spiders.
The reason they get the name "funnel spiders" is sometimes when you look closely at some of the webs you'll see a little funnel that goes down into the vegetation a little bit and that usually where the spider will hide and when insects land on the web or get catch in the web they scoot out to catch there prey.
