Who Knew What Goes on at Night on our Garage Doors?

During the daytime, our garage door looks innocent enough, with maybe a few fuzzy spider nests hinting of the transformation at night.

The photos I sent recently to www.spiders.us for identification tell part of the story of the strange nightly doings.   What I thought was a spider either dying, dead or struggling with prey, was actually a spider pumping itself up with blood so it could blow up and break out of the external skeleton it had outgrown.  The photograph I sent was of the shed skin attached to the garage wall by a thread.

And one of the bugs I photographed was a parasitic wasp looking to take advantage of one of the spiders by making it host its young--I think that means paralyzing the spider and injecting wasp eggs inside so the wasp offspring can eat their way out of the spider.

The site also identified my first spider of the season, which I saw on April 14 hanging from a porch light, as most likely a furrow spider in the orb weaver family of spiders.  And it identified a blurry photo as likely showing a house spider in my basement.  And another of the bugs I photographed on the garage wall turned out to be a midge. 

Parasitic wasp on garage door.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Midge on garage door.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Shed exoskeleton of spider.  (Photo by Don Comis)

My first spider of the season, a furrow orb weaver.  (Photo by Don Comis)