re: #270 Dr Lizardo

Typically, I leave spiders alone. I have one in the entry hall here, and it doesn’t bother me.

The only time a spider made me jump was in 2001, in Prague. It’s hot in the summer here, so I sleep with the windows open. One morning I awoke to a genuinely gigantic garden spider on my pillow two inches away from my nose. I jumped up, the pillow went flying, the spider went flying, etc. I finally tracked it down, used a thin dowel to pick it up, and put it back outside.

We have Orb Weavers here in NorCal. In the late summer/early fall they weave really, really strong webs that are quite large, often spanning paths and such and extending over 6 feet in doing so.

How strong are they? Well, you know how when you walk into a spider web, you feel this wispy stuff on your face? Not these. You can feel them stre-e-tch across your face, and when you jerk back out of it, they pull back off your face, still intact. I think they could catch birds in the damn things! If you’re walking in the woods this time of the year, a stick to wave in front of you is highlyrecommended!