Garden Cross Spider. Photograph taken at Smith Hill. Credit Martin Hill.
This is one of the most common of the 650 species of spider found in the UK and is known to most as the Garden Spider or Garden Cross Spider, as a distinct white cross can be seen on the spider’s back (this photo shows the underside of the spider). It is found, as the name indicates, in gardens as well as in areas of grassland, one of about 100 different spiders that can inhabit different habitats in a single garden, such as short mown grass, borders of herbaceous plants, mossy rockeries and hedges. Each has its preferred habitat, the garden spider weaving its web along hedges and between the stems of tall plants
In relation to humans the garden spider is neither aggressive nor harmful if encountered, but in relation to flying insects, the spider works each night to create a spiral web where it sits in wait for flies, wasps and other flying insects to struggle in the web, making a telltale vibration. It then wraps its prey in silk to restrain it and delivers a poisonous bite that paralyses the insect. As well as being food for the birds, the garden spider is a natural pest controller.