I just got a Black Widow!

batjac Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:02 pm

No, not the engine. I just returned from Walmart after getting some cheese and Saltines to go with the chili I've got in the pot, and as I got out of my car I saw a Black Widow carrying an egg sack, spinning a web next to the garage door. I haven't seen a Black Widow spider in decades. I guess I'll have to get used to them down here. Anyway, I called my wife over so she could see it. She asked if I wanted her to swat it with her broom, but I told her I'd get it. So I grabbed a book that is in the corner on top of the Goodwill pile and got it with that.

So, I got a Black Widow today.

The Librarian Mark

rsv1cox Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:34 pm

Compliments of Levent Mark.

While shoveling snow off the front steps of our Maryland home I moved a plant pot and under it was a Black Widow, beautiful against the snow and alive as the day it was born. I put it in a glass jar and brought it to work, a learning experience for my friends.

**Admin** Fri Jul 29, 2022 3:39 pm

Woah. We don't have black widow spiders up here, although you hear of someone finding one every once in awhile that hitchhiked up in a truck or in someone's luggage. Brown recluse spiders show up more often, although still rare.

balogh Fri Jul 29, 2022 4:38 pm

Poor spiders are the damnedest creatures with their ugly look...what may have driven Nature's hands in evolving an insect so obnoxious?

The only animal that indeed gives me a goosebump by its sheer looks, no matter big or small..

rsv1cox Fri Jul 29, 2022 5:16 pm

balogh wrote:Poor spiders are the damnedest creatures with their ugly look...what may have driven Nature's hands in evolving an insect so obnoxious?

The only animal that indeed gives me a goosebump by its sheer looks, no matter big or small..

I take the opposite view Andras.

Mom always told me "Never kill a spider in the house." Never understood that until I learned much later that they are predators preying on other insects and their eggs. I have been known to pick them up with a tissue and usher them out of the house.

Occasionally I find one of these in the basement.

Wolf spider, ugly but harmless. They can slide under doors quite easily.

West Virginia has very few insects compared to Florida where living with scorpians was a daily occurence.

balogh Fri Jul 29, 2022 5:23 pm

I do not hate nor kill them Bob - in fact I do not kill any animal except mosqitoes when they feed on my blood - , just instinctively withdraw when encountering them...

rsv1cox Fri Jul 29, 2022 5:31 pm

balogh wrote:I do not hate nor kill them Bob - in fact I do not kill any animal except mosqitoes when they feed on my blood - , just instinctively withdraw when encountering them...

Many scorpians have met their maker under my shoe Andras, One never got me but I knew those that had. Not a pleasent experience. When we moved to Maryland, unpacking the TV we found one inside. Well passed.

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