Charlotte's web

 Okay so I have to share my freaky bug stories on here, because freaky bugs are just a part of our life here in Georgia! I miss the days in Washington when I could just go out and play in my woods without having to worry about ticks, fire ants, scorpions, black widows, brown recluse or freakishly huge spiders...

Anyway, story #1 I don't have pictures to go with. I was meeting my running group for a Saturday morning run, so I woke up about 6:40 and went into my closet half asleep to grab a specific shirt I wanted. I found it and had put my arms through when all of the sudden I felt stings all over my body. I threw the shirt on the ground and looked down and I had fire ants stinging me everywhere! I brushed them all off and tried to squish them, I looked at my shirt on the ground which was swarming with them. I started stepping on them, but there were so many. I looked at my other shirts in the closet and none of them had ants on them, but the ground was covered in them. I noticed a tiny spider had built a web in the bottom corner of my bathroom and I watched as about 6 ants got caught up in that web and I instantly became best friends with that little spider and decided to let him keep his home there in my bathroom. I thoroughly enjoyed watching those ants struggle and the spider spin them up to enjoy as future meals.

I decided to wake up Jeff, even though he had been up so late from a football game the night before and I felt bad, but I didn't know what to do. We decided to try to drown the ants, but those suckers wouldn't die. I called my friend Robyn and she said she had some stuff to kill them with, so I went ahead to my running group and got the spray from her after. Jeff sprayed all the ants and it turns out there was an old gym bag with a jolly rancher in it that the ants had found. It was just so crazy that the only shirt they were on in the whole closet was that green shirt that I had specifically thought of wearing. I am glad though, because my girls always play in my closet and it would have been awful if the ants got one of them! I only ended up with 7 stings, but they turned into huge welts and blistered up and itched like no other. Also they were all over (3 on my leg, 2 on my arm, 2 on my stomach) so it felt like I had them everywhere. We sprayed the ants and haven't seen them since.

Story #2 is one day, Cheyenne asked if she could go play outside, we told her sure and I opened the door for her and walked away. She went running for the door and suddenly screamed and halted to an immediate stop. I turned around to see what happened and this bad boy had built this serious web across our entire front door. It was kind of funny, because it was like he was protecting us and not letting any bugs get into our house... but Jeff had to take care of him with a shoe...

I mean that looks like it is actual thread that you would sew fabric with, so intense!

 Its scary looking, but I guess it is just an ordinary spider and can't kill you or anything. The black widows are like 1/4 to 1/2 that size and deadly and I have heard personal stories of relatives of people who have gotten brown recluse bites and had serious repercussions including amputation of limbs!


Story #3 I was up late one night getting ready for preschool when I walked into the girls bathroom to find a scorpion had been caught in this little tiny spider's web. It was just hanging there upside down. I was completely fascinated and I watched as the spider began approaching the scorpion and wrapping it up. Scorpions are really really good at playing dead, so I didn't believe it had died, but I really wanted to see what happened. However, the spider totally sensed me, so anytime I got close enough to watch the spider would run up to his little watching/hiding space until I backed away. I watched for a good 5 minutes, then I really had to get back to planning preschool so I decided I would come back in 20 minutes or so to view the progress of the spider wrapping the scorpion. I had debated killing the scorpion, because I hate having them in our house, but I really wanted to reward that little spider for catching him. And I kind of wanted to watch it eat it.  It is hard to tell in this picture, but the spider is the little black dot hanging quite a ways above the scorpion.

 I know this is so gross, I obviously neglected to clean this area for too long.

I came back about 30 minutes later and I literally got the chills when any trace of the scorpion, spider or even web were completely gone! That sneaky little scorpion. I instantly regretted not squishing the scorpion immediately. I know that scorpion devoured that tiny spider and is still alive in our house somewhere. Although, I suppose it could be dead by now since I have killed about 5 since this incident.  The weather is changing right now, so the bugs always increase around fall and spring, but we have even seen teeny tiny baby scorpions that are almost feather-like, so they are hatching in our house!

Bugs are disgusting, but so far has been something that is more of an inconvenience and annoyance than anything. We really only find about one bug a day so it isn't like our house is infested or anything and I mean other than the black widows or brown recluse spiders, nothing is life threatening, and I have never seen either of those two spiders inside. Hopefully it stays that way!! I wish they would just stay outside and leave us alone!