northern mockingbird
On a mid-December visit to the botanical garden with a friend there were a lot of birds, all of them strategically avoiding my camera behind twigs and branches, but keeping a good eye on us.
The botanical garden had posted on its Facebook page that a yellow garden spider (aka a zipper spider) egg sac suspended between two Okefenokee hooded pitcher plants had been spotted in the Carnivorous Plant Collection – and we found it.
Inside are up to a thousand or more tiny, dormant eggs. Creating this warm silk sac was one of the last endeavors of their mother’s life – yellow garden spider adults usually don’t survive the first hard frost. If all goes well, the eggs will spend the winter safe in this sac, emerging as itsy bitsy spiderlings in spring. … This particular pitcher plant variety is native only to the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia. (There’s also an introduced population in North Carolina.)
~ North Carolina Botanical Garden
(Facebook, December 17, 2025)
Quite impressive. Silk is very strong, but can be weakened by wetness and sunlight. Time will tell if this egg sac will make it though the winter. We’ve already had some morning temperatures in the teens.
I used to have garden spiders, but haven’t seen one is a few years. I miss them!
I don’t ever remember seeing garden spiders in CT, but I see them all the time now down here in NC!
How very interesting! We have a type of pitcher plant in central Florida swamps. Whenever I hear the word Okefenokee, I think of Pogo comics. My whole family enjoyed them and “Pogoisms” still creep into my conversations from time to time.
I think I remember the Pogo comic strip from childhood but somehow never made the connection when I visited the Okefenokee Swamp for the first time as an adult. I love that your family shared a love of “Pogoisms!”
It is fun seeing you play hide-n-seek with the titmouse and mockingbird!
They certainly seemed to be enjoying the game!
That’s interesting Barbara … assuming they survive those cold temps, all those spiderlings running around in the Spring boggles my mind! That Titmouse peeking at you with the big black eye(s). So cute, as is the Northern Mockingbird as well.
I read that only about 10% of yellow garden spiderlings survive to adulthood. Sometimes they eat each other before or shortly after hatching! Others fall prey to birds, lizards, and shrews. I bet that titmouse and the mocking bird have eaten many spiderlings in their lives. 😉
That’s not a big percentage of spiderlings surving to adulthood at all. Yes, I am sure those are tasty treats for those birds!
Imagine what our gardens would look like if all thousand of them survived! 🕷️ Nature is very practical about keeping populations in balance, when we let her.
Yes, well I might be afraid to venture outside then – you know my fear of spiders! Yes, Nature is smarter than we often give her credit for.
Isn’t it funny that this spider chose to do its work in the carnivorous section of the garden?
It does make me wonder how many of them will wind up getting caught inside a pitcher plant…
What a clever, and sacrificial, mama spider! And to think she did all that without a high school diploma! It will be interesting to see how many of those baby spidies make it until spring.
It will be quite a show if those spiderlings emerge. Apparently the one who make it gather in a ball on the mother’s web and wait for a breeze to catch their silk strands to balloon them off to parts unknown.