Tri-Chapter Field Day: Spiders of Missouri

April 13, 2024
by Bob Virag, Class of 2015

Standing room only for MDC Staff Educator David Bruns excellent presentation on Spiders of Missouri. The auditorium at Babler State Park was packed with 80+ fully engaged Missouri Master Naturalists and trainees. David's easy-going and light-hearted approach to a topic that is repulsive to most created a lot of new fans of these vital eight-legged creatures. 

I learned that Black Widows will only bite if you carefully pick them up behind their armpits and force their face into your skin! (photo 1). I also learned that spiders have many anatomical parts, and that compassion is not one of them (photo 2). And David introduced me to a clever way of remembering the general names of spiders by organizing them into "guilds" based on their behavior. 

Well done, David Bruns!