Amazing Work!

Ξ January 14th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Animal Stories, Costa Rica, Crawly Things, Life in Costa Rica, Living in Costa Rica, Spiders |

web1Nice web huh?

As my readers know, I am not overly fond of spiders, but I DO admire their work. I have had a couple of bad experiences with spiders in the house, one of which I documented in this Blog.

We have a beautiful patio covered with a roof.  Around the patio runs a small hedge at a height of maybe 2 feet.

The other evening, I was out enjoying the beautiful evening. Twilight and early evening are just spectacular here. I know for a fact that the web was not there.

Early the next morning, I walked out on the patio and see this web. I took several pictures, but they do not seem to convey the sheer size of this overnight work.  The web is attached to the top of the hedge at the bottom and to the eave of the roof at the top.  That is a distance of about six feet. This ambitious little critter constructed the whole thing betweem about 8 PM in the evening and 6 AM in the morning. Figuring it not to last, I took the pictures, and in fact, by mid-day, it had disappeared. web2optDecember and January in Costa Rica are very windy months, and between the constant movement of the hedge and the pressure of the wind, the web succumbed.

Oddly, I never did see the spider who created this web. After all the work and spinning a web that should have made for a nice home and steady food supply… she apparently abandoned in before daylight, or was hiding somewhere in the eaves.

Click on the photo the the right to see an enlarged version showing the detail.  Incredible!

 

The Tarantula Story

Ξ May 13th, 2007 | → 7 Comments | ∇ Animal Stories, Bugs and Critters, Costa Rica, Crawly Things, Humor, Life in Costa Rica, Living in Costa Rica, Maria Luisa |

Maria’s Pet TarantulaAs regular readers may recall, I am not a huge fan of things with more than four legs. This can been read about in some of my priors encounters with Rolando and of course the famous cucaracha episode. So now that you are clear on this, it is time to discuss my bug loving wife and how that affects our relationship viz-a-viz spiders.

As spiders meet the more-than-four leg requirement above, they fall into the “keep them the hell away from me” category.

Maria Luisa, my bride of almost two years, does not have these issues. She thinks spiders are neat, and in fact all bugs are just wonderful. This, as you may imagine, sometimes brings conflict into our relationship. I prefer the “squash ’em now” approach, while she would invite them to dinner and prepare something special. I am not permitted to hit them with a shoe or she has told me she will hit ME with a shoe. This applies even when we are visited by humongous tarantulas the size of a baseball glove. (Click to enlarge photos)

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