Not a Good Day to Be a Bee

It was not a good day to be a honey bee.

But it was a good day to be a spider.

For days we watched honey bees, sweat bees and syrphid flies visit a patch of alyssum and African daisies in our yard. Their floral visits did not go unnoticed. A crafty spider stretched a web between two citrus trees just above the flowers.

The spider waited patiently, sometimes dangling in the middle of the web, sometimes tucked beneath the citrus leaves. The web seemed more like a fishing net than a trap because, under our watch, she caught nothing.

Her prey easily slipped through the net and bounced out of harm's way.

Not so on Saturday. A honey bee encountered the sticky web and could not escape--neither the sticky web nor the spider's bite. By the time we saw the bee, she was already toast...well...spider dinner.

It was not a good day to be a honey bee.

But it was a good day to be a spider.