Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sp-sp-spiiiider!!!

Yesterday afternoon while pulling up some kale plants in the garden that had gotten too big for eating, I uncovered a little friend:
Ok, she was not little and really not what I would call a friend. This is the biggest black widow spider I have ever seen. Her abdomen was the size of a medium sized blueberry, say 1/2 inch in diameter. I say "her" with confidence because she was sitting on a pile of eggsacs. Yes, more than one! I could not bear to squish the mama spider - I mean, you can hear the 'pop!' her belly would make if I squashed her, can't you? Eeeewwww-but I had no problem dealing swiftly with her babies, after we opened and examined the eggs, of course. Gotsta edumacate them kiddos somehow, right?

One big mama spider to eat any pests in my garden is ok, but three eggsacs full of black widow spider babies unleashed on my pesticide free yard? Um, no.
Poor A was tormented between a deep facscination and desire to look and a real fear of spiders that keeps her awake at night. She, in fact, had to have Daddy sleep with her last night. E, on the other hand, was beside herself with excitement. Everybody's different, I guess. I was proud of A for overcoming her fear enough to look.

3 comments:

Caroline said...

Sydney here to say: oooyea kill it! kill it!

Darlene said...

I can hear your voice with your words I love it. I use to be afraid of stuffed bears and now even real bears are cute to me (even though I dont want to be their breakfast, lunch or dinner). I am happy that A is working on her fears by facing them and then how great that Daddy gets to sleep with her to calm them I love love.

Anonymous said...

This is SO cool!