The Kitchen Spider!

  Some folks have this phobia about spiders.   At one time, I did.  I was terrified of the critters.  To this day, I am not certain what frightened me so.  After being bitten by a black widow, a jumping spider, a writing spider, dozens of house spiders and twenty or thirty wolf spiders over the past twenty years or so, the fear has subsided into the realization that all of the aforementioned bites were my fault.  My hands, feet, legs and arms were all in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I was begging to be bitten, or so it seems.  Clumsy me!  I just seem to have a knack for grabbing spiders!

  This morning while I was scrubbing down the kitchen table, a small jumping spider eyed me curiously.  It was sitting next to a jar of olive oil about two feet from me when suddenly it darted out and....nope, not me this time...caught an ant!  A tiny ant was crawling on the back of a kitchen chair when the spider jumped from the counter onto the chair and back.  You go, Spider!!!  Suddenly, the spider was now my best friend!  Yep, if something wishes to live in my kitchen and eat critters, I am all for it!  (And I do realize a spider is a critter but, at least, it is not there to muss up the kitchen.)  

  The tiny jumping spider can jump up to fifty times its length!  It does this by using its segmented legs and regulating the blood (or the spider equivalent of blood) flow in its legs.  It usually does not use a web to capture its food.  The spider just pounces on it. (After all, it is not called a jumping spider for nothing.)  Also, like all spiders, the jumping spider does have venom and fangs but not strong enough venom to do much damage to big, ole humans!  No spider goes out of its way to bite us.  We just get in its way, threaten it or squeeze it.  

  So, that said, the little jumping spider can live in its corner of the kitchen behind the olive oil.  It can feast upon any critter it can overpower.  If it so wants, it can creepy crawl or bounce in the fruit bowl, behind the fridge, up the walls, on the ceiling, on the curtains or in the grocery cabinet. (It should steer clear of the stove, however!)  My new found friend is a kitchen spider and everyone needs one!