SPIDERS!

Hubby and I found out recently that our property is infested with Black Widow spiders.  That's right...infested!

We had noticed a lage amount of spider webs in the shrubs in our yard, along the fence line, around the foundation of our home.  We didn't really think too much of it, really.  It was spring and summer, after all.

One day, I came home from work to find Hubby in the garage, camera in hand.  Turns out that he noticed a huge web that ran from the washing machine, to my pantry cabinet, to a basket on the floor.  On this web was a black spider, and upon closer inspection, he recognized the freakish red hourglass on the spider's body.  So he ran for his camera to get some close-up pictures before smashing the critter into oblivion with a rubber mallet.

Thank goodness he knew how to identify the Black Widow.  Little did we know just how many of these things were lurking in our midst.

I am terr-i-fied of spiders.  When I see one scurry into my line of vision, I shudder and supress a scream.  Usually, a sound of shock and disgust escapes, though.  Then I call on Hubby...my knight in shining armor...to come dispose of the beast.  I certainly never get close enough to identify it - eight legs means spider...that's all I need to know.

We went about our business living in our house...gardening and working outside.  We did a little cleaning in the garage...and opening up our camping chairs revealed more little black spiders.  We removed some shrubs.  I began eyeing the cobwebs alongside the foundation of our house, along the walkway that connects the front driveway to the back patio, and vowed to do something about them.  I would spray the webs that kept popping up among my prized Jasmine bushes with the water hose, and they would come back.  We avoided the cypress trees in the front of the house because of the webs that ran between them.

In a stange twist of fate, one Saturday I noticed a few ants scurrying around the kitchen sink.  There weren't many...these were obviously scouts, on a mission to find something worth writing home to all of their little friends about, leading them into our home, our kitchen, our pantry.  I took care of these initial invaders, and as the weekend progressed, I'd keep finding a few ants here and there on the kitchen counter.  These guys obviously weren't taking the hint!  So when Monday rolled around, Hubby again came to my rescue...calling and scheduling an appointment to have an exterminator come out to the house and spray.  These inconvenient little ants turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The following weekend, with the pup spending a fun-filled day at the kennel and the little fatties (my cats) sitting in the back seat of my car, we welcomed the exterminator into our home to spray for the offending ants.  He moved to the outside, spraying the garage and moving on to the yard. 

Before we left to drive the fatties around town in the air-conditioned comfort of my car, the exterminator came rushing to the front of the house.  His words still ring in my ears, "You guys have a lot of black widows around your yard, so you really need to be careful. I keep seeing them all around in your back yard...and watch out for those little white egg sacs...you don't want those to hatch!"

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We have a bonafide infestation of black widows!  My mind raced...all the times we've stuck our hands in the bushes to remove or prune them...without gloves!  The little black spiders in the camp chairs...the black spiders in our entry way...the egg sac and black spiders that I took out with my gardening spade....the webs alongside the foundation on the side of the house where we walk...my dog, roaming freely about the yard, innocent and unaware of the dangers lurking...summer evenings spent sitting on our patio furniture (surely there are spiders there!)...the feeling of webs brushing up against my hands as we would roll our garbage and recycling bins out to the curb every week...I can't handle it!

We left the house, and returned a few hours later when it would be safe to release the fatties in the house and go collect the pup.  The exterminator removed all of the webs that he saw (including the ones along the foundation of the house and in the cypress trees), but he missed a few.  There were some behind my seasonal redwood planter in front of the house.  I gingerly pulled it away from the house, and there they were...two of the offending black widows clinging to life.  In the back yard, I found two more in the area where we had just removed a shrub the week before.  Under our patio furniture, another one.  Now I have a picture of them burned into my mind...I will forever be able to identify a black widow spider.

Days passed, and I wouldn't step outside without a can of spray for killing spiders.  Did I mention that I'm scared to death of them?  Suddenly, I was convinced that giant spiders were waiting around every corner, poised to leap out at me, and if I didn't have my trusty can of spray, I would be defenseless.

Time has passed.  I've found a few more spiders outside (yes...more black widows), and depleted my spray on them.  One spider was huge...brown with black markings.  I sprayed him with so much spray that when I clubbed him with my gardening spade, he left a little wet spider print on it.  shudder

Now Hubby is gone.  I have to be a big girl when I see a spider around the house.  Just this week, I've seen three.  Two brown ones (one was huge) and a dead black widow.  All three were inside the house.  I took care of them...although I wasn't happy about it.  So the exterminator is coming back this weekend.  I have specific areas in mind to have him spray...areas that I will be working in outside, and I don't want to see any more unwelcome guests.  He'll be giving the inside of the house a thorough treatment as well. 

Spiders on my turf.  I can't handle it.