At the end of July we discovered this spider in our backyard. We had seen few others on the bushes near the pool, and had marveled at the size and color. I put my hand there to give a sense of proportion. You can see a look of slight concern on my face, although I'm sure this is a harmless garden spider. The size is just creepy. And so are the bright yellow markings.But, I will say that more bugs have been fun for the kids. Abby and Sam love to catch crickets and grasshoppers; Abby is quite fearless about grabbing them. We also have been seeing decent sized toads at night, along with flying bugs we've never seen in California.
8 comments:
THAT IS TOTALLY CREEPY! That spider looks downright dangerous! You actually look pretty brave to me. =0)
I don't like large spiders much. And walking into that spider web would have me flailing madly. This time of year I always think of as spider season. Their gossamy threads are everywhere.
I'd have to agree with Gretchen on that one! TOTALLY CREEPY!
I knew she'd found a spider when I heard a huge scream from Gigi at my house. ;) This one would have probably had her running down the block!!! (Huh, Gretchen?!) :)
Ugh. I ran between two rose bushes when I was about five and went through one of those garden spider webs. I totally freaked out (in a manner described by Nathan) and that was the begining of my horror of spiders. During spider season, Ed always very nicely walks ahead of me if we are passing between bushes. We do not have big web making garden spiders here in the Philippines, but we have wall spiders that reach large proportions and give me the heebie geebies.
We had several medium spiders on the wall of our porch. I let them be for a while, since they weren't hurting anyone. But I always was aware of where their webs were and when I went outside I'd take role just to make sure one wasn't on me or Amelia. Then on Saturday, I decided that even though they were minding their own business, this is MY house, MY porch, and I'm tired of feeling irrationally nervous in their presence. So I smashed them and then took out the sprayer on the hose and sprayed down the whole porch-- celing, crevices, etc. I felt a little bad, but also a lot better. It's awfully kind of you to leave that huge thick web and spider be!
Hey, that looks like one we saw in the Philippines. There were tons of spiders when we lived at the lake house and I am enjoying having a few less here at the new house. Although we seem to have traded them for crickets and wasps/bees. The other day I caught Ethan petting a bumble bee as it went about it's business. It didn't seem to mind and I guess it's little furry body was irresistible to little fingers.
Yes that is a scary one! Today I killed two black widows and their eggs inside the lid of my compost bin! Love Grandma
Hey everyone, thanks for all these fun comments. I love seeing who's reading my blog. By the way Ariana, this spider is totally out of the beaten path in the backyard, so we don't even see it unless we go look to see if it's still there. I'm all for taking my ground wherever I actually live. How funny that the closest experience to this spider was Bethany's in the Philippines. Maybe they need more humidity to survive or something. We have already killed some of the healthiest black widows I've ever seen. That was scary! Thanks for reading everyone!
Post a Comment