Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Black Widow!!!!!!

BAGMAN:  "Whoo hooo!!!  To the hunt!"

BUTLER:  "Be careful, Mark."

So anyway, it is about 6:45 a.m.   There's alot going on in my life and I've had to take a day off from work and Brian, who spent the night with us, spent the night coughing constantly -- so I'm running off early to get some cough medicine at Wal-Mart when something catches my eye in the corner of the garage.

Corner of the garage

I walk over closer to take a look and suddenly say to myself, "Wow.  That looks like a black widow spider!"

The Bagman voice inside me yells for me to get the camera!  I have only seen a couple of black widows in my life and the chance to catch a bit of rare animal life is a big deal.  The Butler voice inside me suggests that I be careful because you really shouldn't fool around too much with these things.  

But the actual practical voice in my head says that my son is upstairs coughing his lungs out and the spider it quietly sitting in her web and will still be there later after the sunlight is better and Brian is not coughing so much.   

So I drive to Wal-Mart, get the cough medicine, come back, give it to Brian, get my camera, and go back outside...stealthily approaching the poisonous arachnid's lair.


Poisonous arachnid's lair

Wimpyness, which has developed as I have grown older, had convinced me to start with a normal lens rather than poking around with a close-up lens...which I might try next after determining that I wasn't being led into a trap where two hundred steroid enhanced mutant black widows would drop from the ceiling and eat me.   It was just a slow moving black widow, after all.

But where was it?


Don't strain your eyes -- it's not here although
this is where it was...

Dang! 

Earlier, it had been so motionless and calm and peaceful (and poisonous), I had assumed that a short trip to Wal-Mart wouldn't matter.  Now it was gone.  Once again, I kicked myself for not taking the picture when the picture is there to be taken.   Lost opportunity.  One disappointed photographer.

Then, as I dragged back into the house, another thought struck me.  It had not moved to Miami Beach.  It was somewhere.   It was still somewhere.   I'm guessing that I will wear work gloves the next time I need the step ladder, the broom, the footstool, or the flowerpot. 

And, next time, the cough medicine can wait for five minutes while I get the camera. 



11 comments:

  1. Rare beast! Ha ha, just move to Arizona. If one is hiding, the other is in full view and the third is already climbing your socks.

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  2. N-O-T-H-I-N-G worse than a missing spider! OMG! Next times spray it stiff, get the medicine and take a picture of its dead spidery butt. Loved the idea of the mutant spiders dropping though--right out of a nightmare I just had.

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  3. Now that is creative writing. Yes I know the spider was there but the way you tell the story is just priceless. I would not want to speculate where that spider may wander off to. I doubt that it will leave that garage. Be careful Mark. So sorry things are so chaotic at your house.
    QMM

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  4. I have seen only once seen this species. I also would have wanted a photo. I did not know they weaved open air webs. I thought their webs were in dark holes somewhere like wood piles---I have lots of those. I have a telephoto lens which is perfect for shooting poisonous things...before really shooting them. I'd spray some insecticide around since that corner looks like a busy area.

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  5. I hate spiders more than anything. I am a screaming beast when I get too close to any kind of spider, and black widows are very common around here. My husband is a pro at spotting deer and elk as we drive through country roads and national forests. I am a pro at spotting spiders from a mile away, in the dark. I don't like my dog rubbing up against bushes when we walk in the evenings because there are an abundance of black widows just hanging out waiting for their next victim. Oh, we also have these really creepy humongous gray fuzzy spiders that look like kin to tarantulas. Those things really give me the heevie jeevies.

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  6. ...'it hasn't moved to Miami Beach'... and why would it restrict itself to your garage? I think you all better move to Miami Beach!

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  7. LOL im due to get out and spider proof the house before summer arrives. Last year the Black Widow, which we call Red Backs over here in Australia, were the LARGEST I have ever seen. We have them everywhere. The kids know to stay away from areas that have 'messy' webs, as the Black Widow/Red Back is a very lazy web spinner!
    They arent fun, but you do get used to them being around. But in Australia you have no choice, everything is poisonous or else it wants to eat you LOL
    xxm

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  8. Are you sure it wasn't a brown recluse.

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  9. *shudder* I really get creeped out by spiders!! I will be inspecting the sheets closely before I climb in after reading that story!!!!!

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  10. My whimp-o-meter is just about off the scale these days so I was relieved when I read to the end and realized I could stop my mind voice from screaming, "It's still there! Somewhere!" Gosh, I wouldn't rest until it had been found and removed (one way or another). It would be a good job for Steve Irwin if he were still alive! Come to think of it, yes, I can see a resemblance.

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