widows

...not the kind that have lost their husbands, but the kind that have eight legs and contain poisonous venom. Apparently our yard, front and back, is infested with them. Both black ones and brown ones. I didn't even know there were such a thing as brown widows, until Devon told me she has been spotting them. I never see spiders around the house, but Devon has a peculiar fascination with them. Several times per week she goes on hunt around the outside of the house for widows, usually with a camera (the picture in this post is one she took at our house), and sometimes with a can of Raid and a pack of matches. She often makes me look at the pictures and generally I haven't been interested, but now, after so much of this, I've become intrigued...not with spiders, but with Devon. I've asked her why she's so fascinated with widows and her usual response has been for the safety of our girls. She has to go on these hunts and find spiders in crevasses in order to kill them before they attack our girls. That may be true in part. But the widow fetish is really more of an odd kind of addiction than anything else. Addictive substances continue bringing people back to the substance for the release of endorphins, and the adrenaline rush. This is exactly what happens with Devon and spiders. Every time she finds one, she acts like she's seen a horror film, especially if she finds a widow in a high travel area, like a walkway, or on a chair. I could never tell if she liked spiders or if she hated them. She's freaked out by them, but yet she keeps going back. Or maybe that's precisely why she keeps going back. She took a picture of a brown widow today nesting on a chair that my mom was sitting in yesterday. She says they're everywhere, especially at this time a year, when it's getting warm outside. My philosophy has been, if I don't see it, it's not really there. Devon's philosophy is, they're everywhere, even if you can't see them, so find and kill or be killed. I'm fascinated by Devon's fascination.

Comments

[Deevo]

You have to admit that's an awesome picture. I think you should send out an addendum to the original post...you wrote on May 3rd and the following day I killed 7 brown widows. They were hiding under chairs around the fire pit - a place where we gather each Wednesday night. Be forewarned to check your chair before you sit, Pritchett.

[Deevo]

Oh and check this out...
www.envirosafepc.com/black_widow_spider.gif
You'll find pics of what they (male & female) look like.

[Chris Pritchett]

I rest my case.