The Trouble With Spiders

This post is a little bit graphic. For all of you who have a fear of spiders, be forewarned that this might disturb you. It certainly disturbed me and I love spiders!

Every morning, my husband goes out to water the garden. Our garden is a bit overgrown this year. We got a bit ambitious and planted several tomato plants that are now as tall as I am. Their steaks are not nearly so tall, so they slump over and snake around the other plants. We also have one watermelon plant that took over the lower part of the box; and a cucumber plant that we thought had died, but was just a late bloomer and spread itself around next to the watermelon. Add a few pepper plants that are wee but producing and a few hidden beets, and you'll have our 8x4 garden box. 

As my husband was watering it the other day, he noticed a large web system. We like spiders, as long as they are outside, and most other bugs. So he looked closely to see if he could catch a glimpse of the pretty arachnid. 

The next moment he rushed into the house out of breath. "Don't let the girls go outside! Come with me!" That sounded ominous. He sounded a little excited, like it was a special surprise, but there was also some fear in his voice.

"There is a HUGE Black Widow Spider living in our watermelon!"

My heart began to race a bit, too. I knew that we had Black Widows and Brown Recluses as well as scorpions and fire ants and diamond back snakes. But aside from the ants, which just sting, and a breed of scorpion that leaves a giant, ichy bite but is not deadly, I had not seen the other dangers in person. 

He showed me the web. But the spider had gone into her lair. This was actually a little more nerve racking. If there is something deadly nearby, I'd rather be able to see it. We went inside and Ed went back out with the camera to try to capture it on film (as if cameras use film anymore. Well, it's still a nice turn of phrase). He got a few blurry pictures and then went to look up how to kill it.

I then took the camera out to see if I could get a photo. I touched the web with a long piece of grass and the spider came scuttling out just like a spider in movies! I have never seen a real spider move like that! It was obvious that spider thought she was top dog and was ready to attack anything that came close to her web! My pictures came out blurry- party as I didn't want to get too close and because I was nervous. 

A little while later, my husband decided to try some spray grease that he uses for his bike chain on the thing. She curled up and he captured her in an old peanut butter jar. She died, thank God (not often you can use that sentence and not be damned!) and then we got a good pic.

Blurry picture of her in her web.

Slightly blurry, but good size comparison.

Much better. Look how obvious the hour glass shape is! Crazy!

Now the worry is, how many others are there? Time to call the exterminator!