The New Neighbor

Every year, I keep my eye out for this neighbor, who shows up here and

there around my property. Every year I hope she builds her nest where

I can get a good photo. I'm getting closer. This is no Mark Plonsky

shot, but I'm getting closer.

Whoa! Well-captured, Doug.

 

Given how very dangerous the black widow can be, I wonder why I have not tried to kill them. We had one when I was a kid that made a web out near our fence line, next to the road. Everyone who passed seemed to see it sooner or later. I think that we saw its progeny year after year in about the same place.

 

No one ever killed any of them. Dangerous or not, they were simply too beautiful--and they had their place in the scheme of things, I suppose.

 

This is beautiful, too.

 

--Lannie

 

One summer, I lost count of how many I killed--over 60, all around my house. that's not counting egg sacks. That was when I had little children playing around the yard. I'm more live and let live, these days, but for sure, they give me the ultimate creeps. Even found one crawling across my tee-shirt one night as I was sitting on the couch. That was the day's most exciting moment, I guarantee.

 

Thanks Lannie. I look forward to one day getting a really superior shot of this stunning and awe inspiring creature. A lot of camera shake going on, trust me.

I understand, John. Our lone "visitor" was probably a hundred feet from the house when I was a kid, and I knew enough to leave her alone. I understand that the venom is extraordinarily powerful, even in small amounts.

 

--Lannie

"Even found one crawling across my tee-shirt one night as I was sitting on the couch."

 

Oooh! I missed that on my first reading. That would "freak me out for sure." I would have probably had the entire house fumigated. I had a big snake slither across my boot as I approached a creek once as a young teenager, carrying a machete. Everyone hit the deck as the machete flailed helplessly overhead and around. I am told that my voice carried pretty far that day. (Cut to the scene in The Godfather where the guy finds the horse's head in his bed.)

 

No one else was afraid of the snake that day. They were down there on the ground with the snake. The machete scared them out of their wits.

 

--Lannie

Doug.... Good shot; in fact it's good enough to serve as a memory of the dearly departed Ms. Widow. Sorry, she'd have to go living that close to the house.... Ugh, I'm checking under my chair right now... creepy... Mike

 

 

Lannie, I'll be sure to keep a respectable distance from you if ever we share a room with a machete.

Michael, watch your hands. This creature's bad eyesight means she won't see you coming, but it also means she won't run away when you get closer....until it's too late.

Doug, I thought your house was based somewhere in the United States and that these dangerous spiders only meandered in Australia. Considering my whole travel-risk-mitigation matrix was based primarly on the whereabouts of such venomous creatures, I now need to completely reconsider any future plans. Please tell me you live in Australia!

Alas...I live in Virginia, some 2 hours south of Washington, DC.  Found one of these on my lawn mower last week.