I know that lots of people don’t particularly like spiders, but they are a fact of life, and Barbados has it’s fair share.
The photo here is a typical Garden Spider with a leg span of about four inches. If you can look at it long enough, it’s really quite beautiful (coming from someone who used to have a spider phobia is an incredible statement).
The spider here is upside down - notice the protrusions on the abdomen - aren’t they amazing? And the striped legs. The egg sacs of these particular spiders are bright yellow, similar to the yellow stripe visible on the legs.
As the name implies, they live outside - it would be a pretty unusual occurrence for one to come inside. They spin extensive webs and many spiders live on the one large cluster of webs, and are particularly fond of cacti, sea grapes and other large shrubs.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any around my home, and the one pictured here was on a web system between two walls and some Bougainvillea, located on the east coast of Barbados. I do, however, remember seeing a lot of them when I was a child. Perhaps there aren’t as many around nowadays, particularly in more densely populated areas.
If you’d like to read more about Barbados, please visit my other blog, Things Barbados.
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