There are spiders in there!

  When I was just a wee tot, I was bitten by a spider.  The spider was never identified but I was told it was definitely a spider bite.  That seems to be a reasonable assumption merely due to where I was when I received said bite.  The story begins the day after a hurricane had hit the area.  While the old farmhouse did not receive damage, the trees in the yard took a beating.  Several large trees had been uprooted and left gaping holes in the ground.  For some reason, a large tapestry was draped over the tree limbs to dry.  Ahh, to a tiny kid being told to go play while the adults cleaned up the mess, that tapestry became a tent!  I happily whiled away the hours in my own little world until that fateful moment when something decided that I had been there long enough.  I remember excruciating pain on my knee and, as a tyke would, I went screaming for Mom.  Since doctors were not usually called upon unless you were in dire straits, I had to tough it out.  Mom washed the then rapidly swelling bite.  Pop came in and put some sort of "drawing salve" (which I remember as being black, tar like and smelly) on the spot and then wrapped up my leg with a piece of torn bed sheet.  For the next few hours, I walked around looking like the most forlorn mummy ever to be released on the world.  Later, Pop "operated" on my wound.  A scalded pocket knife did the evil job of lancing the bite and the most acrid smelling ick came pouring out.   More of that black salve was applied and the knee was bandaged again.  All of this was done without any anesthesia.  I was given a new toothbrush to make amends.  Whoopee!  Yay!  Ouch!  I was also reprimanded about not watching out for spiders.  "Stay away from hollow trees and dark holes.  Spiders live there."    So my tent playing was over and I was still mummified for a few days with ragtag bed sheet strings dangling from my knee.  I did, however, recover unscathed except for a small scar left behind by the pocketknife.  This bite was the start of a long line of spiders just waiting to attack!  Since then, I have probably received nigh on 50 bites from one sort of spider or another.  Thankfully, the pocketknife has not been seen as the cure all since that most haunting day.

Looking up into the hollow tree.

  This story came to mind when I had the bright idea to stick my hand inside of a hollow tree today.  Why?  I wanted to see if the tree really was filled with evil spiders just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting folks.  The tree is a large oak that was damaged by yet another hurricane a few years back.  Hurricane Katrina had tossed large mounds of debris in our yard. One piece of that debris was an entire deck from someones house.  That deck slammed against the tree leaving a gaping gash.  The tree did protect the side of the house from being hit by the deck so all was good.  Now, however, that poor tree is hollow and almost dead.  So...curiosity got the best of me. I stuck my camera up in the hole and took a photo.  In fact, I took several since I had no way of telling if I was even focusing on anything.  I fully expected to see all sorts of critters on the photograph but, even though I enlarged it, I found nothing resembling a critter.  No termites...no roaches...no beetles...no grub worms...and, believe it or not...NO SPIDERS!  Well now!  Did I just debunk the well-meaning advice given to me as a youngster or did all critters vacate the premises so they would not be photographed??   I do find it quite odd that I found nary a bug in the tree but, at the same time, I am sort of happy that I did not.  At least, I did not get another spider bite!