This is not Charlottes Web...

I do not like spiders...I try very hard not to freak out, but sometimes~~~~~~Ewwwwww! Charlottes Web sort of creeps me out when I get to the spidery parts...I don't care how cute she looks on TV, she's still a spider and I still slightly shudder.

Last summer while I was weeding the garden (gloveless and shoeless no less...I know...not very bright), I reached down to grab a handful of weeds and as I did, I just happen to see something black move slightly. I pulled back really fast and grabbed a stick...I had almost wrapped my hands around a very large Black Widow! Talk about almost having a heart attack! I don't go gloveless or shoeless anymore...for a while I even started wearing pants tucked into my rubber muckers and longer shirts...I also sweated my butt off and decided that shorts were just fine, but the rubber muckers were staying.

My kids well know what the widows look like. I have always pointed them out each time I've seen one. They are pretty common here. I was moving a pallet the other day to put in the shed to get ready for the hay and I knew that there was probably a few spiders on the underside of the slats...boy I'm glad I had gloves on and looked. There was an even larger black widow with some egg sacks around her-doubt they were all hers, but I took no chances of finding out...she and they were immediately squashed.

Well this morning B comes in and states that there is a black widow on our front porch. Of course J being the boy that he is, wanted to run out and see. Of course he tries any thing he can to get out of his school work. I grabbed the only thing I knew we had that would possibly hurt it: Roach and ant spray-in a pleasant floral scent no less- and headed out the door to see. She was right. I sprayed and felt such joy as it tumbled through it's web and down the wall towards the ground...Whack and Splat! Ahhhh, one less Black Widow in the world and a pleasant floral scent leftover!

Though I don't like spiders, I do try and leave the good ones. Most of this summer we had a very large banana spider spin a huge web in the carport window right next to where I park my Suburban. I had to pass that thing everytime I got in or out...YUCK! But I let it stay. J adopted it as his 'pet' for the summer and made sure it had it's meals of brown beetles, 'delivered' throughout the day. I can't say that I miss the thing now that it's dead, but J does. I do miss the fact that it seemed to eat more than it's weight daily in bugs and down here in the deep south, that's enough of a plus to keep something creepy around for a while!