I was flabbergasted today to find hanging upside-down a delicate and very black spider affixed to its ethereal web, said web running from my mailbox to a green chair on the front porch. Usually I find hairy wolf spiders on the porch, or daddy long-legs. I'm no expert, but I know what sort of black spider typically hangs head-down in her web, and since this spider was black and hairless I took a closer look--indeed, here was the much-maligned latrodectus curacaviensis, perched nonchalantly and awaiting her prey, her Tucker Calrson bow-tie obvious in the sunshine.
I'd no idea they were common in Maryland until today!
Needless to say I very cautiously retrieved my Verizon bill. I have no fear of spiders, even after my anti-biotic run-in with the brown recluse two years ago, and I follow the folksy dictum:
If you wish to live and thrive
Let the spider walk alive
Face it--they eat nuisance bugs. I often find yellow spiders and wolf spiders in the bathtub and I'll rescue them and put them in the basement in hopes they'll eat the camel crickets there. I've heard in parts of Asia that people put rope ladders in their tubs so spiders can escape at will.
I also found a few dead cicadas in the front yard--they're all over the grounds at Towson High where I ran today, the familiar scree again loud, but nowhere near the cacaphony of last summer. I suppose a percentage of them are programmed to hatch a year late in case of flood or famine at the height of the cycle. Maybe some of them wanted to see who won the election?
At any rate I thank Lord Krishna for dreaming up the gorgeous weather today. That breeze in particular was much appreciated.
