I have never been a spider lover but, on the other hand, I have never screamed or jumped when I see one. I kind of liked the idea of them catching bugs. Not being a squeamish bug fearing type of person, I always find it a bit entertaining when someone would jumps and screams at the sight of a spider. I don't laugh at the person. I more find the jump or squeal fun to see (kind of like someone jumping around when tickled). An example of this is a silly trick Demi does a lot to Rob. Demi likes to catch daddy long legs. She has a habit of pulling a few legs off daddy long leg and then handing them to Daddy as a surprise. I always laugh when Rob expects a kiss or a penny and jumps when he looks at and feels a daddy long legs missing a few legs dancing in his hand. We ask her to stop doing this but she doesn't listen. This happens so often I wonder why Rob is surprised to see a missing leg long legs in his hand. I guess you can say I never understood why people have a fear of spiders. OK, I do understand MANY states have poisonous spiders (black widows) but we don't have them in PA. I have always been told that we have no need to fear spiders. WELL! I am changing my tune! I am now a spider fearing person! This year we are studying biology for science so we have several bug boxes to observe insects. We captured a spider one day last week. Demi caught a daddy long leg and thought the spider would like to make friends with Mr. long legs. We let her put Long Legs in with Mrs. Spider so they could visit....... In about 2 seconds the spider was attacking Daddy Long Leg. Daddy long leg didn't stand a chance. I wasn't really affected by this but two days later Travis caught a large moth. He asked if he could put the moth in a bug box. I thought he was going to use another bug box not Mrs. Spiders. WRONG! That spider went nuts when she saw jumbo moth in her home. She chased down, attacked, and abused the moth. The moth fluttered around and fought to get away. I think she might have poisoned the poor moth. The moth did some strange fluttering of wings but seemed unable to move except for the fast twitching of his wings. I watched in horror! It was not a quick, blink of an eye, episode like it was with Mr. Long legs. It was long and scary! I started thinking about how we get spiders in our house. Honestly, we OFTEN have spiders in my house. My house was built in the 1800's. We have a stone foundation, old window, large trees near our house, and several chimneys all the things spiders seem to like. I started wondering how many spiders might be around me. I convinced myself one must be in the corner right behind me, maybe even inches from my arm! After seeing this small aggressive spider attack a huge moth AND KILL IT. I found myself thinking about how, at any moment, a spider can climb up on and attack my bare arm in the same manor as the moth! I got myself so freaked out over it all, I now feel that I have spiders crawling all over me all the time. If I am standing still I feel spiders on me. If I am holding the baby and she breaths on me I think her breath is a spider crawling on me. When I walk by an open window and catch a light breeze on my neck or arm I feel spiders on me. Laying in the dark I feel spiders and I am sure they are getting ready to attack me in the same way our spider attacked that giant moth! This year's science class requires reading several books on bugs. I think this might not be a good year for me to teach Science!
This is a picture of Mrs. Spider.
1 comment:
Is it a "wolf" spider? P was reading one of her books about spiders and she became fascinated with the idea of a "wolf" spider. They are named that because they do not build webs, but run down and attack their prey.
Yuk! I'm creeped out by spiders too.
I don't think these attack humans the way they do other bugs. ;-)
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