Not exactly cats or dogs, and not exactly in the garden...

15 Feb '07 3:24 pm

I'm with cajunanie - I'd MUCH rather have spiders in the house than rats!! In fact, last year one day I noticed what appeared to be a piece of rubber or string hanging from the top of my electrical breaker panel. Since I had not noticed it before, I went over to investigate and, as I reached out to feel it, it MOVED!! Yup - it was a rat. Well, the first thing I did (I admit it Embarassed

) was to buy some rat poison. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I just could not abide a rat in the house, especially where it could chew through the wiring and cause a fire!

Since then, there has been no indication of any more rats, although the neighbour's cat caught 3 of them last month while her owners were away and she was staying at another neighbour's house. We all figured she was paying her rent! Laughing

Anyway, we are very close to the river and only a mile of so from the ocean and the harbour, and, you know about harbours and rats!!

I'd love to get a good close-up of those feisty little spiders that I spoke about, but they move too quickly! Perhaps I'll get lucky this year!

AND, I LOVED that picture of the huge spider!! COOL!

Cheers,

gordonf

16 Feb '07 2:13 am

Well, I have to agree with all the above comments. The large spider picture looked very similar to what we always called "Writing" spiders when I was growing up. They build their webs near windows often to take advantage of the light emitted at night which attracts insects to the spider's web. They make an unusual zig-zag pattern in the center of their webs and that is where the "writing" comes in. I was taught that they are good luck and should never be disturbed. Once, I had one outside my home and I forgot to mention it to the exterminator who sprays to keep ants and roaches out of my house. I went to check him out after the exterminator's visit and found him lying in a crumpled heap on the window ledge. How sad. Since then, I have been careful to mention to the exterminators that if they see one, LEAVE IT BE!

16 Feb '07 5:11 am

I also agree on the rats vs spiders question - spiders, in fact, do not bother me in any way, actually I try to protect them from our cats who just LOVE to chomp on one (I'm sure they're insectivorious!) Rolling Eyes

I've had the daddy longlegs thing since I was a small child and I become one again if I see one! I literally scream and huddle into a ball to get away from it! I know they won't hurt me, and it's not a fear of being hurt, but it's the way they fly and you can see them one minute and then they've disappeared and then you suddenly see them again, flying right at your face. I'm beginning to get slightly shaky just typing those words! Shocked

Anyway, I think spiders are great, although we don't really have anything bigger than those big old black house spiders (well, when I say "big", I mean about 2 inches diameter including legs, but that's big for us!). Hubby knows quite a lot about spiders and I'm sure he's told me once that all spiders are poisonous, or have poison to kill their prey, but some of them have teeth that are so tiny that they're not strong/large enough to penetrate our skin so are not dangerous to us.

16 Feb '07 12:20 pm

Eek! I've just imagined the sound of a cat chomping on a spider. I've never seen mine do that. But, and this is absolutely nothing to do with spiders etc., I caught Rusty the dog nipping at a low branch of the plum tree, stripping off the barely ripe yellow plums and munching them happily, stones and all. He is a greedy dog, but that's ridiculous!

16 Feb '07 3:00 pm

Hi, everyone!

I've just learned that my cute, feisty spiders are Jumping Spiders, although I still don't know exactly which variety mine are. One of my neighbours told me to watch out for them, as they have enough "poison" to inflict a nasty bite, but not enough to kill anyone. No wonder they don't appear to be afraid of me!! Regardless, I still like them very much and can't wait to try again to get a picture of one.

All the best!

gordonf

17 Feb '07 12:44 am

Bambi, that is so funny about your cats eating spiders; however, I don't think we are thinking of the same creature when you say daddy longlegs. You mentioned yours flying? The daddy longlegs spiders I know just creep along on their elongated legs; they definitely don't fly. What gives?

Poor Rusty, I hope he didn't get a belly ache. I used to love to eat wild plums as a child, but sometimes if I ate too many of the not quite ripe ones I paid a price later. Anyway, that's as funny as my story about Willie (my dog) stealing sweet potatoes from my garden. I also remember a neighbors dog who used to love to follow me to my garden to eat sugar snap peas. He would eat as many as I would give him, but was very polite and never tried to pick them himself.

Gordon, I know the jumping spiders you are talking about. They are funny little creatures because you can tell they are actually watching you. Sometimes a little freaky though. Most insects don't seem to have that much awareness of us, though they probably just have a different way of dealing with those giant creatures that intrude on their space.

17 Feb '07 3:26 am

Apologies, everyone - when I refer to a "daddy longlegs" I actually mean a crane fly (yeugh!) Daddy longlegs is just a sort of nickname really; although I have to admit, I didn't realise there was an actual Daddy longlegs spider (just Googled it)

17 Feb '07 2:33 pm

Hi, Bambi,

I was also wondering when you mentioned that Daddy Longlegs fly. Now I understand more fully why you don't like these critters! I don't particularly like them, either, as they are so unpredictable in flight and very fast also at times. They seem to be rather uncontrolled in flight, sort of bashing their way around, don't they? I can imagine that if I had more hair Rolling Eyes

, I'd be a bit afraid of them, too Laughing

! You never know if they might get entangled in it!

Well, thanks for clearing that issue up!

Cheers,

gordonf

17 Feb '07 5:35 pm

Beards could be a bit treacherous, too...

17 Feb '07 6:01 pm

Amen

!

gordonf

Not exactly cats or dogs, and not exactly in the garden...

Rats vs. Spiders

Spiders and rats

Chomping

Spiders and Snakes and Bugs, Oh, My!!

Spider eating cats and plum eating dogs

Crane Flies