Free Pest Control

  Not too long ago, a friend made the remark that she was calling the pest control folks to spray her garden and patio.  It seems that several large garden spiders had taken up residence and she viewed them as pests.  Try as I might, I could not convince her that the spiders were the best form of pest control she could get and to leave them in the garden. She was having no part of that and called for help.  It made me sad to think of those lovely spiders being killed.  It also made me sad that she spent a good bit of money to have people do what the spiders were doing for free.  Arachnophobia must plague this dear lady to make her wish to rid the yard of something so helpful.

  This afternoon, I tried watering the garden a bit.  The poor plants look withered and I am not sure if my efforts were enough to help them at all.  At least, I felt as if I were doing something to soothe them so all is good.  While there, I came across a lovely spider that had made her home in one of the dying purple basil plants.  The spider was nigh on as large as my hand and had spread her web between two plants.  As I watered, she never made an attempt to "attack" me nor even looked a bit hostile.  My absence from the garden for the past month probably encouraged her web-building but she did not seem to mind sharing "her" garden with me.  Even when I was taking photographs of her and pushed my camera just inches from her, she did not look riled.  I love these spiders!

  Although yellow garden spiders do have fangs and do have some venom, they are relatively reluctant to bite. Their sheer size usually is enough to frighten most folks from holding them but it takes a good bit of rough handling before they feel threatened enough to bite.  The venom is mild and aside from site pain and itching, there is not a lot of worry.  Unless a person is allergic to venom bites, this spider's bite is not considered medically important.  Take it from me that the bite feels a lot like a bee sting! (Been there and done that.  Not fun but surely not the worse pain that I have ever felt.)

  I thought about my friend and her exterminators.  Poor spiders.  With that, I leaned over and whispered to the spider in my garden, "Don't worry!  I won't call the bug man on you.  You are welcome to stay right where you are and rid my garden of other bugs!"  I am sure she appreciated the thought.