{"id":680,"date":"2010-06-05T15:10:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-05T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T20:00:09","slug":"garden-guests-wolf-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html","title":{"rendered":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

This morning I went out to weed the flower garden before the heat soared, and encountered two unexpected visitors close up and in person. One resulted in a bee sting before I could withdraw my hand quickly enough from the patch of\u00a0 Gaillardia I was weeding.\u00a0 He got my just above the edge of my gardening gloves, about halfway up the arm, but I managed to whisk the bee off before the stinger penetrated too far, so aside from a bit of sting and redness I’m all set.<\/p>\n

But then there was the wolf spider.<\/p>\n

Do you have wolf spiders in your area? In North America there are 125 species and they are everywhere. They are the size of tarantulas. The body is about 1 to 2 inches long, and with the legs they’re about 4 inches long at maturity.\u00a0 Here is more information and photos of them: wolfspider.org<\/a><\/p>\n

I surprise many in the garden. Today I tackled the weeds at the entrance to the garden path and the thousands of morning glories that seeded throughout the flowers beds near the entrance. I pulled up a stone, and a very large, very frightened wolf spider bolted out.<\/p>\n

She carried the most exquisite turquoise-colored egg sac on her back. Wolf spider females carry their eggs with them in either a white or robin’s egg blue egg sac attached to the abdomen. Around my garden, many of the females have beautiful blue egg sacs ranging from the palest blue to a deep, rich robin’s egg blue.\u00a0 Today’s mama had a turquoise colored sac.<\/p>\n

Wolf spiders do bite, but only if they mistake your finger for an insect.\u00a0 They prefer insects and mama spider was more interested in finding a safe rock to hide under than she was at biting me.<\/p>\n

When the babies hatch, they cling to the mother’s back. It’s not uncommon for me to stop and wait while a mother wolf spider races across the road in front of us as I walk Shadow in the morning.\u00a0 I marvel at the hundreds of tiny babies waving their legs at me as if to say, “Thank you!” Sometimes I feel like a crossing guard.<\/p>\n

No picture today of spiders.\u00a0 I’m not fond of looking at them myself. Instead, here’s the sunny face of a Gaillardia near where Mr. Bee got me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I went out to weed the flower garden before the heat soared, and encountered two unexpected visitors close up and in person. One resulted in a bee sting before I could withdraw my hand quickly enough from the patch of\u00a0 Gaillardia I was weeding.\u00a0 He got my just above the edge of my…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1954],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birds-and-wildlife","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nGarden Guests: Wolf Spiders - Home Garden Joy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This morning I went out to weed the flower garden before the heat soared, and encountered two unexpected visitors close up and in person. One resulted in a bee sting before I could withdraw my hand quickly enough from the patch of\u00a0 Gaillardia I was weeding.\u00a0 He got my just above the edge of my...Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home Garden Joy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sevenoaksgardening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jeanne.grunert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeanne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WriterGrunert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@WriterGrunert\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeanne\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140\"},\"headline\":\"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\"},\"wordCount\":400,\"commentCount\":2,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/IMG_2773.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Birds and Wildlife\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\",\"name\":\"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders - Home Garden Joy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/IMG_2773.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/IMG_2773.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/IMG_2773.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/2010\\\/06\\\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home Garden Joy\",\"description\":\"Grow What Nourishes You\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140\",\"name\":\"Jeanne\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeanne\"},\"description\":\"Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/Jeanne-Grunert\\\/e\\\/B002FR9ZX4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jeanne.grunert\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/homegardenjoy\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/jeannegrunert\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.com\\\/sevenoaksjeanne\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/@WriterGrunert\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/homegardenjoy.com\\\/site\\\/author\\\/jeanne\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders - Home Garden Joy","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders","og_description":"This morning I went out to weed the flower garden before the heat soared, and encountered two unexpected visitors close up and in person. One resulted in a bee sting before I could withdraw my hand quickly enough from the patch of\u00a0 Gaillardia I was weeding.\u00a0 He got my just above the edge of my...Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html","og_site_name":"Home Garden Joy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sevenoaksgardening","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jeanne.grunert\/","article_published_time":"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeanne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@WriterGrunert","twitter_site":"@WriterGrunert","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html"},"author":{"name":"Jeanne","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140"},"headline":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders","datePublished":"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html"},"wordCount":400,"commentCount":2,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg","articleSection":["Birds and Wildlife"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html","url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html","name":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders - Home Garden Joy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg","datePublished":"2010-06-05T15:10:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-28T20:00:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IMG_2773.jpg","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2010\/06\/garden-guests-wolf-spiders.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Garden Guests: Wolf Spiders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/#website","url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/","name":"Home Garden Joy","description":"Grow What Nourishes You","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/#\/schema\/person\/2a4a2d7c5e897228f42be953553e4140","name":"Jeanne","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a00d7eb73461d2099498e814aff8b33f2ad508e1d0608cc28e4457e188352d5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeanne"},"description":"Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Jeanne-Grunert\/e\/B002FR9ZX4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jeanne.grunert\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/homegardenjoy\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeannegrunert\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/sevenoaksjeanne\/","https:\/\/x.com\/@WriterGrunert"],"url":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/author\/jeanne"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18686,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/18686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}