Along Came a Spider......

Our realtor had warned us about the "lake spiders." Not one or two, but seemingly dozens of spiders will have spun their webs between our visits to Mayberry. Especially on the eaves of the boathouse.... I guess the spiders like lake-front webs. (Location, location, location...)

I've taken to keeping one broom by the front door of the cottage, one by the back door, and one in the boathouse. Three brooms... no waiting.... a "weapon" near at hand to brush away the webs. Our friend Frankie always believed that a spider web shouldn't be disturbed as long as you could get yourself around it. Frankie took that to an extreme. I can still remember watching her as she contorted her body underneath and around a massive spider web that was near her trash cans. To see her folding herself underneath that web, rather than just taking a broom and brushing it away, was a sight to behold.

When I asked Frankie why she just didn't destroy the webs, she looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. She reminded me that the spider webs catch mosquitoes, which were a bigger nuisance than the spiders. Unless a spider constructed a web near her front door, she just left it alone. And even then, she would try to re-locate the web, rather than use a broom to dismantle it altogether. Frankie did teach me to admire and respect the design of spider webs, especially when the sun hits them. They truly are magical works of art, as Frankie once told me. Still, if you walk into one of them, the first word that comes out our your mouth isn't "Magical!"

There's a certain spider very common to Texas........ I can't remember the name of it, but it's brown in color, with a long body shaped like a violin. Those spiders are extremely dangerous, and if you're allergic to their bites, they can be deadly. Tree spiders? Something like that... I just can't recall right now, but I am sure about the violin-shaped body. I haven't seen one since we've been here, but then, nor have I been looking for one.

I've learned (the hard way) that I am allergic to fire-ant bites. Just one tiny bite on one of my toes, and half of my foot will swell up and turn red. Those tiny ants pack one heck of a bite... the bites will blister and the top of it will be hard, like a wart. And the itch... never-ending. Our new neighbor G (at the lake) told us to keep Neosporin in our First Aid kit. We bought a tube at Wal-Mart, and it does indeed take away the itch as soon as the cream soaks into your skin.

We should ask G if the lake spiders will bite. There are lots of red-winged wasps up there, and I've already used two cans of wasp spray on old nests that were near the porches. Another annoying flying-thing at the lake is the "dirt-dauber." It looks like a wasp, but it's all black and doesn't have a stinger, so it can't hurt you. All it does is go back and forth from the dirt to its nest, each time adding a tiny bit more dirt to its home. Hence, the name dirt-dauber. I don't know what the real name is for that insect, but that's what everyone calls them here. (Sounds like the makings of a country song--- "Dirt..... sweet dirt..... a little daub'll do ya.....")