Young orb weavers emerge from their egg sacs they have spent the winter in around March in early spring. They either build small webs near here or float to other areas by producing a long thread of silk carried by the wind.

They eat insects that fly into and get stuck in their webs, they feel the vibrations of the insect hitting the web and run down to it where they pull more web over it to trap it completely. They then bite it to inject their venom which paralyzes the prey and digests their insides so it can be sucked out with their fangs.

By the early atumn they are ready to mate and the male which only biulds a small web if at all finds a females web to join. He uses his leg to tap out special vibrations so the female recognises him as a mate and not food and joins the female here until they mate. After mating the male dies soon after as he will not have been hunting in his search for a mate.

The female produces 100-300 eggs, wraps them in a silken egg sac and guards them until she dies from starvation by October. After a few weeks the spiderlings hatch but spend the winter keeping warm in the egg sac until spring arrives.