A couple of weeks ago, when it was still very warm in So Cal, my plumeria plant was looking very withered, and being in direct sun, I decided to move the plant into a partially sunny area of my yard. In the process of moving it, I noticed a very large spider running up it's now torn web. She was caring a yellow egg packet with two legs and running on six. I only saw her for a couple of seconds and now she was hidden under a leaf somewhere. The days passed and I kept thinking about her and the egg, wondering when it would hatch. The thought of thousands of little spiders, that, one day would be big like her was a bit overwhelming.
Then one day I noticed something, one of the leaves was kinda rolled up and spider web all around it, she had placed her egg right there and you could see it in full view. If you looked closely, you could see her hi dding behind it. She had yellow/brown legs with black strips on them and a very big abdomen, off White/stone color with tan spots. I guess someone who studies spiders might have been extremely excited but I was kinda grossed out. One of the most interesting things about her was her egg packet, unlike anything I have ever seen, it had spikes all over it.
So after deciding I couldn't kill her, I went with plan B. I wanted to know if she was poisonous. If she was then she would have to be killed but if she was a harmless garden spider then I would have to go with plan B. So I put the previous pic's on the web and a guy e-mailed me to tell me she was a "Brown widow spider" cousin to the black widow. They come from Africa, and their venom is poisonous but when they bite, they inject so little venom that no human was ever hurt by one. They came to So Cal about 5 years ago in shipping containers. Their numbers are not that numerous but they give away that this was my spider was the egg sack. No other spider has an egg sack with spikes all over it except these spiders. He sent me this pic
I looked at Joe and said "That's my spider!" So plan B consists of calling my friend/manager/co-worker, Angel who's son is really into these things. He has all kinds of incests and spiders at their house. She was excited to hear about my spider and said she wanted it. So Joe helped me get it into a plastic bottle. I took it to work and she came and got it. She's not scared of these things (I think she's a little desensitized!) LOL. Now I am waiting and she is feeding her crickets and waiting for the egg to hatch. She will send me pic's of the
7 comments:
I agree...desensitized. :-)
I hope that you all are well. Look forward to seeing ya'll on Sunday.
It is a beautiful spider. I'm not fond of them, but I do admire those that have spectacular markings. On year we had a huge egg sack deposited by a very pretty light green spider. Out of it came hundreds (seemed like) of tiny babies and then a couple of days later they were gone. Like Charlotte's web.
Several times I've seen a pretty good size one with black and white spots, but no babies. We had one in a jar for a couple of days, and he shed his entire skin, head and legs, like a lizard. Incredible!
Alan-Jean was always into all kinds of insects and raised spiders in glass jars.
Keep us informed.
Love you and your family.
You see Sis Alice your like Dr do-little all these animals that come into your yard know that their chances of survival are great LOL Like the bird,spider ect. You see because you were scared of spiders but you took the time to look I would have killed it in a sceond.
And that is why this special spider was in your yard and not mineLOL
Love you
Sabrina
I would say, about the third paragraph down and I felt like things were crawling on my legs! Thanks for allyour comments.
Alice
Well Alice, you did it again. I must now go on another internet journey to discover all that I can with my grandson about your interesting spider. When I showed it to him he literally squealled with delight. Then he said, "Grandma, I love Alice, she is so cool!" You have stolen his heart. I think the girl who gets him to the altar and gets him to say "I Do" one day will not win him over by her cooking. She will have to be someone like you. You know what I mean?
Thanks for yet another great post!
I didn't ask for all of these fun these to come to my house. It may have to do with the fact that I live near the Santa Ana river, next I'll have to write a post about when I lived in Colton, CA and we had shunk babies, now that was FUN! It seams like all the animals have a six sense to come to my house, thanks for your comment and you know we should pray for our childrens'/grandchildrens' spouse's so I know what you'll be praying for tonight. It is the biggest compliment to me to know that I am cool in your grandson's eyes. I'll keep blogging about all the crazy things that happen to me. Thanks again for your comment.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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