Yesterday I noticed that a whole bunch of little spiders have been crawling around the window by my front door. There were about 60 of them, all huddled up together into a circular formation. I guess they were staying close to each other for a reason. I was initially taken aback by this scene. I thought it looked kind of scary. I wonder if I should get rid off these spiders. I mean, they are going to grow up to be big spiders and then I am going to have a spider problem at my house with spiders everywhere. All 60 spiders have to go somewhere right?
As I continued to observe the little spiders crawling around a tiny network of spiderwebs while pondering what I should be doing with them, a large bee flew by and to my great surprise, it used its legs to grab a few little spiders and started eating them! As the feasting progressed the little spiders frantically dispersed from their little huddle all over the network of tiny spiderwebs on by my front door window. I was shocked by this scene. Not only was I getting a really good close up of the bee without the fear of being stung by it, but I was also observing something interesting about nature. I had always assumed that spiders use their spiderwebs to catch bees and they will eventually eat the bees. But it had never occurred to me that bees eat spiders! The eyes of the bee seemed even bigger than one of the little spiders it was ingesting. I thought bees are supposed to eat something associated with flowers or something.
A Google search on “What do bees eat?” yielded a common result of pollen and honey. No one ever said baby spiders! After observing what happened, I decided not remove the baby spiders. I learned the lesson that I should not be upsetting the balance of nature for my own peace of mind. If I killed the baby spiders, they will not be out there making spiderwebs to catch the flies and mosquitoes (and perhaps a few bees and wasps). If I killed the baby spiders, than the bees would not have access to the an excellent source of protein.
I should just mind my own business and let them mind their business — such, is the circle of life.
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