What Happened

[Tom Bender]

I was just sitting there on my tuffet eating my curds and whey when eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!

[John Ziebron]

If you don't post a picture of the spider it didn't exist. :D

[Jim Koepke]

Around here it is the time of year the spiders get overly enthusiastic about their web spinning.

jtk

[Julie Moriarty]

Tom, you need to move to Florida. When I go out to get the paper in the morning, before sunrise, I find myself looking under the car and in the brush in hopes I might outsmart a Burmese python or hungry gator. Today I was pulling some weeds and this cactus like thing, that I thought was so cool when it was 1/4 the size, stabbed me several times. And my hand swelled up. And we have no-see-ums that are smaller than a grain of pepper but bite like a hornet.

I really miss Chicago....

[Peter Kelly]

Impossible to move back? Evanston seemed like it'd be a pleasant place to live.

[Bill Dufour]

I posted this before but it is relevant to this post.
https://www.livescience.com/62452-worlds-oldest-spider-dies.html

[James Waldron]

Tom, you need to move to Florida. When I go out to get the paper in the morning, before sunrise, I find myself looking under the car and in the brush in hopes I might outsmart a Burmese python or hungry gator. Today I was pulling some weeds and this cactus like thing, that I thought was so cool when it was 1/4 the size, stabbed me several times. And my hand swelled up. And we have no-see-ums that are smaller than a grain of pepper but bite like a hornet.

I really miss Chicago....

You've left out the rattle snakes [See pics below.], water moccasins, bears, Florida panthers, sharks, and then there are the hurricanes, tornadoes, massive thunderstorms and lightening strikes, power outages, falling trees and floods. There are a host of reasons to stay in Chicago or New York or Boston. Life is fragile down here and you should think about it. Then there's FLORIDA MAN, who's in the news every day.

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Click 'em to big 'em!

But all that's nothing compared to the Snowbird drivers!

You all should all stay up Nawth where things are safer.

[Jim Koepke]

Speaking of spiders, it was lucky the sun was shining or we may have walked into these:

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One of the spirals can be seen against the dark trunk of the tree. The light spot near the edge of the tree trunk is the spider.

There are actually two webs across our gate in this picture. They were knocked down and at least one is already up again this morning. We keep sticks like the one leaning on the fence on the porch and all around to knock down the webs. Some of the webs are strung quite far between their ends. My walking stick is mostly for swinging in front of me while walking through the trees or pasture. Still every once in awhile one gets me to walk into it.

Some of those spiders get pretty fat. Must be keeping the bugs in check.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Speaking of spiders, it was lucky the sun was shining or we may have walked into these:


I dislike spider webs across the face. I get them a lot walking through the woods trails in the morning or on the 4-wheeler. Sometimes I mount a vertical stick on the front of the 4-wheeler to break the webs; sometimes I hold up a stick while walking.

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The spider webs alone are not that bad. What I like less is catching a big spider web that has a big spider that then starts crawling on my neck.
One like this is exciting:
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My favorite spider webs:
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JKJ

[Dennis Peacock]

I have a strong dislike for spiders stemming from a bad childhood experience. I can pick up snakes and such all day long....but a spider? I'll stomp it to death in less than a New York Minute. :)

[Julie Moriarty]

You've left out the rattle snakes [See pics below.], water moccasins, bears, Florida panthers, sharks, and then there are the hurricanes, tornadoes, massive thunderstorms and lightening strikes, power outages, falling trees and floods. There are a host of reasons to stay in Chicago or New York or Boston. Life is fragile down here and you should think about it. Then there's FLORIDA MAN, who's in the news every day.

Click 'em to big 'em!

But all that's nothing compared to the Snowbird drivers!

You all should all stay up Nawth where things are safer.
I noticed the gated community in the background. Doesn't do much against a big snake or all those other things. But gated communities are big down here.

[John K Jordan]

I have a strong dislike for spiders stemming from a bad childhood experience. I can pick up snakes and such all day long....but a spider? I'll stomp it to death in less than a New York Minute. :)

I suspect you already have this chart, then. :)

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[Jim Becker]

I have a strong dislike for spiders stemming from a bad childhood experience. I can pick up snakes and such all day long....but a spider? I'll stomp it to death in less than a New York Minute. :)
I avoid killing them because they are generally good citizens...if there are spiders, there is spider food and that's typically insects that are not nice to have around.

That said, there was a giant (literally) spider in Tia's bathroom last week that i unfortunately did have to dispatch via the swirling throne. I'm talking about a body that was about 3/4" in diameter with 2" long legs...

[Rob Damon]

I would get a lot of wolf spiders in my shop and around the yard and would always kill them until I saw a video on YouTube where a wolf spider killed a black widow spider quite easily.

I used to encounter a dozen BW's every year until I stopped killing the wolf spiders. Then the neighbor got some chickens and they would run loose around our yard and garden eating the wolf spiders and the BW's showed back up. Chickens wouldn't eat the BW or the squash bugs.

Now that the chickens have been contained in a full enclosure and don't come in our yard anymore to eat the wolf spiders, the WS are multiplying and I haven't seen a BW around the yard in over a year.

We also get the spiders that make the 10' diameter webs. Came out of the shop two nights ago and there was one covering the personnel door trying to get a meal from the flying bugs by the door light.

[Jim Becker]

Great example of balance, Rob!

[John K Jordan]

I avoid killing them because they are generally good citizens......

Same here, house spiders are caught and relocated where my Lovely Bride won't have to interact with them. The only exception was when a huge, exceptionally "hairy" spider came out of a vent and ran across the floor. When I went to catch it hundreds of tiny, tiny spiders on it's body suddenly shot out in an expanding circle, all presumably looking for a place to call home. In this case the spray came out.

The barn appears to be the best breeding area. A young vet was in the middle of castrating a goat in a stall once when she looked up and around at the webs and said, "This is my worst nightmare." Just think of all the insects that fed those spiders!

However, I've met two people who have been bitten by spiders, type unknown. One said he still had a lot of pain and could barely move his elbow four months after the bite, and the other eventually recovered but is missing a pound of flesh. Something to be aware of.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

Spiders used to give me the willys before moving to Washington. Now they do not give me the warm fuzzies, but they are respected and have only been killed accidentally. My response used to be to kill them without mercy.

jtk