New Fear of Spiders

How fast can you run in flip flops? Kris says I can run mach 10, as he witnessed yesterday as I came running around the house, in the back door shouting, but not hysterical, "Which spider has the red hour glass on it's body?"

I was out watering flower beds yesterday, and also knocking down cobwebs, when I noticed the huge spider near my new azalea. She hung out there for a while, but there was no sign of her when I checked this morning. I have had to get used to all sorts of new bugs this year, and the people that are from Tennessee tell us this has been a mild year since we are so far behind in our rainfall. I was grossed out enough to schedule an appointment with Terminix a month ago but they never showed up, so today I will be calling a new pest control company.

Curious Facts

• Black Widow is considered the most venomous spider in North America.-Great
• The venom of the black widow spider is 15 times as toxic as the venom of the prairie rattlesnake.-Even better. Another element to add to my nightmares.
• Black Widow spiders are not usually deadly, especially to adults, because they inject only a small amount of venom.-that doesn't make me feel better about it living in my flower bed.
• Only the female Black Widow is dangerous to humans; males and juveniles are harmless.
• The female Black Widow hangs belly upward and rarely leaves the web.-Then where did she go!?!
• The Black Widow is also called the "hourglass" or "shoe-button" spider.
• Araneae is the Latin word for spider.
• More than 35,000 spider species of spiders occur in the world. Of these, about 3,400 species in 64 families are found in North America.-And most of those seem to be in Tennessee.