I took my breakfast outside this morning and swapped chairs before sitting. The one I avoided had leaves caught up in spider web just below where my right thigh would be. Couldn’t see anything, but hey, I live in Australia and you’ve all heard the stories.
I turned the chair over to check. Nothing beside some leaves and a black shape. The ominous shape turned out to be a dead cockroach but only after I grabbed a small twig and poked.
A red-back spider’s web is usually identifiable by thicker strands often stuck to the ground. Use your finger to touch them (stupid) and you’ll find a the web much stronger relative to other spiders’ webs and quite sticky. Luckily a small stick has the same effect. Right behind the mass that was the dead cockroach was a nice little red-back that I couldn’t see. It moved when I twanged the web. I moved too.
Glad I changed chairs before breakfast before breakfast. But, like every other Australianwould be, was in bare feet when checking the chair. would be, was in barefeet when checking the chair.