Up close and personal (Warning – Spiders!)

A while back we had the builders in, so I needed to be around the house all day to answer questions and advise.  This meant my photographic radius was somewhat reduced.  It was like lockdown but much more expensive and noisier!

I could still have a wander round the house and garden with my macro lens.  It’s surprising what turns up if you look closely enough.

This charming creature is a Box Tree Moth caterpillar.  It looks rather like a Large White butterfly caterpillar, but instead of ravaging brassicas it ravages box hedges; it’s an invasive pest.  This one was, for some reason, climbing up one of our lounge windows.  It didn’t like me getting very close to it, so started waving its head around.  That allowed me to get a shallow depth of field portrait of the bit that does all the damage.

Because our garage has been demolished all of my tools and suchlike are currently stored in the cellar, and our cellar has cellar spiders.  I was shocked!  I lit the beast with a handheld LED torch, and there are some nice bokeh circles in the background where the torchlight was bouncing off some slug trails on the wall.  That’s cellars for you.

On the outside wall, right by the back door handle, there was another spider.  The one was a steodata nobilis; the Noble False Widow.  This somewhat unusual viewpoint is the web-making end of the spider rather than the biting end.  These spiders can give you a bit of a nip if you aren’t careful.  The wall was white, which makes for a nice simple background.

The builders have gone now, but it’s always worth taking a closer look at where you live.