Thursday, August 16, 2007

Friday Ark ~ Black Widow


Well, the farm is covered with the damn things about now. I went out to load some bags of feed for the goats up on the hill today. The heat is sweltering.

I turned over the barrow and found a nest of them.

When I was at Pastor Jimmy's church, I mentioned that the "deadliest thing" on my property was the black widow spiders. "Deadly thing" is a reference to what the signs followers call the strychnine water they drink in the course of their worship.

Jimmy, who handles deadly serpents in the course of the practice of his religion, deadpans at me...

"You need to spray for those things."

9 Comments:

  1. Keri said...
    Oh my goodness! That thing lives near you? Is there really spray? Ick. I'll be praying (not with snakes) that they stay far away from your bed. :)
    threecollie said...
    I'm shivering now....eeewwwww. I second Pastor Jimmy
    Kristin said...
    Oh no,
    I'm australian, and spiders still freak me out! We don't have black widows, but we have big daddy-longlegs hanging out in our bathroom. And wolf spiders and huntsmen that lurk on the outside (and inside!) of our window frames.

    Can't somebody please name a spider something like warm-cuddly-teddy-spider! Maybe I wouldn't be so scared of dusting...
    Michelle said...
    Eww, I just don't like spiders and the only ones I think we have that are poisonous are the brown recluse.

    Once spiders comes to my house/porch, they have a limited lifespan. ;)
    Goat Yoda said...
    Actually, I like spiders- we take them outside. They have a job around here- eating flies.

    And that's one thing we have noticed- hardly any spiders around my house this year, and a plague of flies.

    The wasps/hornets have moved in, esp. to the main goat shed. I need to go out with one of those cans of spray that shoots 25 ft. at dusk and kill their nests. It has been so hot, I have not done jack.
    seejanemom said...
    :::::GUT LAUGHING:::::

    SO. GUT. LAUGHING.
    Anonymous said...
    ... they're all over the place here too... pretty, but as long as they stay outside, I let'em be....

    Eric
    samuel said...
    Black widows might get killed, but most other spiders get a safe ride outside. The only spider I really don't like is the one whose web I just walked through and don't know if he or she is somewhere on me while I struggle to get the web off of me.
    Galadriel said...
    I love spiders--but then I hate insects :) Spiders are a great solution to insect problems.

    We had a wolf spider that built its web right in front of a wasp nest. We'd walk by that one and cheer her on.

    We had another that built her web next to our front door, and caught all the bugs that were drawn to our porch light. It was great.

    We do, regretfully, kill the black widows. We have so many in the barn, very sad.

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