In article , "BiG Orange" @ wrote:

"Judy and Dave G" wrote in message
...
Hi all

Today I found my second black widow spider. Found one last year, also.

One? We found one every month last summer. I wear gloves when moving stuff
around and digging. They will make you a little sick, but the little ones
could have a more severe reaction and need to be hospitalized.

What luck I live somewhere where the chances of a dangerous spider bite
are about one in a million. Imagine gardening in Australia where so many
of the spiders can kill ya! I regard spiders exclusively as friendly
denizens that keep harmful insects in check. I find orb spiders & their
webs to be extremely beautiful, little ground spiders are so cute,
side-ways running stripy crab-spiders are like cartoon characters. But now
& then some big honking spider appears suddenly & I let out a yelp of
horror -- though having never lived where spiders kill people I don't know
where even that most momentary horror comes from.

Little grass spiders, by the way, when they're trying to get away from you
& carrying their eggsack on their back, if you pluck the eggsack off their
back, they stop dead in their tracks & come back to find their eggs. All
their fear vanishes & the only thing that matters is finding the eggsack.
You can hand them their eggsack & they'll reach into the air & take it
from you most delicately. I didn't find this out during cruel teasing of
spiders for sport, but while collecting garden insects to feed terrestrial
salamanders. It's hard to imagine there's much of an intellect behind
those many teensy eyes, but spiders do seem to have complicated little
personalities.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/