Ruud Kleinpaste: Brilliant spider movements

They are “on the wing” at this time of the year. Spiders do not have wings of course, but they can fly for many miles – it’s called Ballooning.   

There are many examples of them flying in jet streams, thousands of feet off the ground, across water, seas, oceans. Each year we get the juveniles of those huge Australia Golden Orb-Weaving Spiders in NZ – they grow up to become huge Australian Golden Orb-Weaving Spiders and frighten the life out of New Zealanders!  

At this time of the year, look up on a fine, sunny almost wind-still day and see what’s floating past! 

Spider silk glands have liquid proteins called spidroins. They're actually kinda gooey and are pressed out gently to form silk; it’s strong, yet light and flexible – a fabulous building material that serves many purposes. 

We all know about the famous “websites” that spiders make to catch flying prey. 

Take the kids outside on a dew-laden morning to find those webs and see if you can find the owner nearby. Those webs have sticky and non-sticky strands of silk, so the spider can walk on them without getting stuck themselves. 

New Zealand’s famous nursery web spiders build quite elaborate constructions in gorse bushes and long grasses: white nests, with (deep inside) a small silken ball with hundreds of eggs.  

That nest alone is made of 5 or 6 different types of silk  

Even the one spider most people love to hate (the Daddy Longlegs in the corner of your ceiling) has a clever trick with silk: it can hold a few dozen eggs in its mandibles with just one strand of silk. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at me.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The rude climb passes in the garden for us this morning.
But as a p proud can't have I have to
start rude by just double checking you. You've been to
Dmitries a few times, haven't you. I've been too cool
Dmitri souvlaki.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
No, I have no rude. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
True past. Are you serious?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Though, I'm serious, I haven't.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I would have thought you'd be well into that. You're
a man who appreciates the final things in life.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, I do. That's why I eat Indonesian food.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh, you've got it. Look, I don't know what you
and Julia are planning for lunch today. I suggest you
take your wonderful wife on a little bit of a date.
Your head to Riverside Market, you go to Dmitries, you
celebrate their fortieth birthday. It's an institution.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Rude, I should I should ask Julia? That's right. The
only problem, Jack is I've spent a week on the
rue of my Hungover river in who are a Rapper
filming day and night.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
Sixteen hour film filming stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
And I am off to Takapo and twice of this
coming week doing the same sort of work with teachers
and kids and all sorts of So yeah, no, I
have to.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Will go all right, I'll say.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
And actually it's going to be Jewish birthday.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well there, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that fair enough. Hey,
the spiders are having a bit of a moment because
it's the same year where they're on the wing, right.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
They're on the wing, and this is the time when,
especially when the baby spiders come out, they start going
all over the place and they have this wonderful way
of literally going on the wing by ballooning. If I
said ballooning, you don't think of a hot air balloon.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
And it's exist because spiders has got, of course a.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Lot of the silk, and some of the silk we
call ballooning silk. So there you go. Start off. First,
we have this Australian thing called the Golden orb weaving spider,
big thing, really big. I've put some pictures on there
on the website. And these guys can literally with ballooning silk,

(02:25):
go without stopping from Australia to New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
That's unbelievable, it is.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, yeah, and every year, we'll find some usually on
the west coast of New Zealand, alive making their own
their own website. I like that word, their own website,
which could be the size of a volleyball net.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, now that, yes, that it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
And these guys.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's also suppaces that fly into the net, including very
young birds or small birds. Even they can they can
get stuck in there. This is the sort of stuff.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
But this is not.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
The only thing there are at the moment, because of
the the wonderful summer we're having now, lots of other
spiders that can fly and float and go all over
the place.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
And I'll give you another example, the nursery web spider.
It's got six or seven different types of silk makes
the nursery webs and the little babies are being released
by mum and they fly asay from christ Judge to Auckland.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
No problem.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Wow, Yeah, I find that amazing.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
It's ridiculous, isn't it. There's no problem. I mean they're
probably not they're not necessarily navigating, are they. But they
are they're on the wind. Yeah, that's the point.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yes, And they use that wind actually together along with it,
and that's exactly what it's about. And the same with
these things like Daddy long legs, same sort of stuff.
The way they handle their silk is fabulous. You know,
twenty eggs all tied together with one little strand of
silk and that's how they hang in the corner of

(04:01):
your dining room.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I thank you so much. Have a wonderful weekend, and
do make sure to take Julia Long to Dmitries when
you have a chance, won't you.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.