I almost ran into a new friend in my back doorway today.

The yellow and black garden spider is a good garden friend. Unfortunately, one decided to seal my back door with her web, and I almost walked into it!

This is what I found:

She is about 3 inches across, but she looked more like a foot across, when I first almost walked into her!

Here is background on this spider:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia
Notice that the bite is like a bumblebee sting, and is painful but not dangerous. I intend to avoid that problem, by avoiding the spider, but may turn her loose in my garden. She eats pests, so that makes her a friend....

But I'm glad she didn't end up on my chest! I have no idea why she decided to leave her web between my door and my screen door; but I hope she doesn't do that again.

They vibrate their web by about an inch when disturbed, to eitherske themselves a moving target, or to trap whatever disturbed them in the web. They are stark and beautiful in their own way!