Last week we got an opportunity to wander around Jungle Gardens. It was good being back in one of my favorite places to get away and see God’s amazing work on display though we never imagined being chased down by an alligator while photographing giant spiders.
We arrived a few hours before sunset. First up was perusing in the truck to “see what we could see.” We came upon a blue heron feeding along the bank of a large pond. With camera in hand, I walked around to take a few photos of her. A car of tourist noticed my camera and pointed at something they were looking at. After they moved along, I walked up to discover a pack of huge Banana Spiders.
They had managed to weave webs between cypress trees along a swampy area of the garden. There were at least three huge webs with a spider on each in addition to smaller spiders. The webs were in a nook in the tree line. The biggest spider was the size of my hand. Each web was separated by a foot or so.
Flash backs of when my daughter and I used to canoe the canals along Lake Fausee Point came to mind. On one particular evening paddle we turned into a narrow canal. Light was low. As we glided along my daughter began waving her arms frantically. We had run into the first of many Banana Spider webs stretching across the canal. After she cleared the web from her face, we ran into another one. Never was I so thankful to be in the stern of the boat! Soon after she was spastically brushing her head off. The spider fell into her hair😬. Five or six more webs' latter we got to our location. Experience pays off. By that point she spent her time waving her paddle above and in front of her to knock webs down instead of being the battering ram. This was well over twenty years ago, but still, I chuckle about it.
These beautiful creatures who often get a bad rap for how “Hollywood” portrays them. These gentle arachnids are fairly common in South Louisiana during mid to late summer. These spiders are also called golden silk orb weavers because they’re large webs – which can measure several feet across – often have bright yellow silk strands they use to capture prey. They fill a valuable ecological role including eating a variety of pest such as mosquitoes and stink bugs 👏👍. Now it makes since why they grow so big in Louisiana🤣
The thorax of females can get up to 3 inches where males at most get to 3/4 of an inch in size. This does not include their diameter with legs. They are huge! Though most spiders have venom for killing prey, only a handful of 4500 known species are deadly to humans. One such spider is the Black Widow, which has venom like a rattle snake, but a hundred times more potent. I’m lucky to be alive today for I was bitten numerous times by a Black Widow decades ago. A bite from a “Golden Silk Weaver” is mild and at worst can cause redness and pain at the bite site.
My calm evening photo adventure instantly changed gears, pushing my adrenaline to its max. After about a half hour of photography, I began videoing the spiders. As soon as I began, I sensed something behind me while hearing a hissing noise. Quickly I looked over my right shoulder near my ankle to see a four-foot alligator 🐊 breathing on my Achilles tendon. Yikes…this crazy fellow was no more than an inch from biting me!
Like “flash,” I turned while simultaneously jumping back all in one fluid motion. Somehow, I managed to keep my camera honed on him with video rolling. Apparently, he was irritated where I was. As I walked backwards videoing him, I talked into the microphone about how you need to be careful because gators can run as fast as humans. While saying this that fool gator charged me. Quickly I moved backwards, but he was way faster than me.
Thankfully as I stopped, he tuned and skid in the gravel sideways while hissing with his mouth wide open. We were now in a stare down match. He continued to hiss as he rolled and smacked his little feet into the ground. Soon after he slowly retreated into the water. Thank God…I won! I got it all on video and managed not to curse though I cannot share what I said once back in the truck🙃.
I hurried back the truck, with wide open eyes, to share with my wife what happened. The rush from surviving a potentially deadly encounter was intense! This will absolutely be a bookmark in life to share with the grandkids. Check out the video below.
Be safe out there!
~ John
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