Monday, June 28, 2010

Smart spider, dumb spider

My yard's practically a jungle. And not just because we've entered the time of year when temperatures reach into the upper 90s and the humidity hovers around 110 percent.

Bugs? We got 'em. Mosquitoes, horse flies, the dreaded yellow fly... But we've also got spiders.

I know, spiders are creepy and nobody likes walking through a web, but when you're up against Mother Nature the way we are around here, you incorporate all the foot soldiers you can get.

This also includes those translucent gekkos and lizards (Ew! and only slightly less ew... but good helpers!)

I was working in a flower bed that was recently demolished to fix a plumbing leak when I noticed two really pretty green spiders with orange stripes on their bellies building webs in different places. I was pretty sure they were harmless banana spiders, so I let them hang out.

One spider set up shop in a corner by the garage door, out of the line of traffic, but still in a primo location for catching flies.

The girls like to look at his web, and I stop them daily from poking it with anything or disturbing his progress.

But there's this other spider who just refuses to learn.

He builds his web right over the door to the garage (inches away from Smart Spider) so I walk through it every a.m. on the way to the recycling bin. Gah!

He then rebuilds across the path to the newspaper box... yick!

Every day Dumb Spider has constructed his web in a prime spot for me to walk through. And can I just say, I take the same route for my little a.m. chores every morning?

Friday, when the girls were away, I stood in the kitchen watching Smart Spider hanging out and thought about how it's coming up on a month now of him being in that same spot.

Then I started thinking about how I've seen this happen with people.

Some people seem to find the right place to be, develop favor with the right people (sometimes for no apparent reason), and are successful.

Others just flounder, annoy the people they need to please, get knocked down, try again--still wrong, and eventually move on to who knows where. They disappear.

Both spiders look exactly the same. So what's the difference?




And check this gorgeous purple clover. A nice lady in Fairhope gave me a piece of it this weekend when I visited her shop.

It looks like a bouquet of butterflies, and I hope it's happy in my bed. They say free flowers grow the best.

12 comments:

A Pen In Neverland: Angela Peña Dahle said...

Nice. We are having spider issues also. My eldest has decided he has a fear of spiders and for not reason at all! So I attempted to read him Charlotte's Web to prove that spiders are helpful to us. I'm not sure it helped, maybe a little, LOL. Good luck with it all.

P.S. I'm now on delicious.com
Are you there?

LTM said...

Hey, APD! Did you cry at the end of CW? I read it to the girls a while back and was a complete wreck at the 'graph where Charlotte dies. I don't recall being so sad as a kid... LOL! :D

Have not heard of delicious.com! Will investigate... Thx~

Ex-pat Odessa said...

okay in the world of spiders, Marius is Smart Spider, I happen to be stupid spider, that Smart Spider for some unearthly reason decided to take me along for the ride!!!

However I have to wonder if you know Stupid Spider is stupid, WHY do You continue to walk through the web, when you know it's there in the first place? Why not knock it down first, or walk around???

Then again, perhaps Stupid Spider is actually Flirty Spider, he likes your golden curls and is trying desperately to 'catch' you! Haha, see what I did there?!? ;p


*obviously a week alone with hubby in Italy has done LOADS for my wit!*

LTM said...

Excellent! And no need to convince me--I've had loads of "dumb spider" moments. Hopefully I'm not currently in one... ;p
(I like "flirty spider." You're really a flirty spider~ ;o)

JRichard said...

All spiders are stupid. Case in point: Spider from GoodFellas was killed by both Tommy "Joe Pesci" DiSimone AND Tony "James Gandolfini" Soprano. It's just that some spiders know how to stay out of your way. Unlike the roach I killed crawling on me while I was doing situps and watching the ST:TNG episode "First Contact" this morning.

LTM said...

oh! Don't share everything, JRM! It was a lost palmetto bug... And ALL palmetto bugs are stupid. No argument there~ :P

Natasha said...

Free flowers don't flower the best- stolen ones do!!!!

And you are so right about some people being smart and some being dumb. BUT, if they look alike how do you know the spiders don't take turns building nests in the other's place?

Hart Johnson said...

Leigh, I LOVE your spider story! I have an appreciation for spiders, so long as they are OUTSIDE. Inside it depends on their size and... to be frank... their attractiveness. Big spiders? Instant death. Ugly spiders? The same. But if they are medium small or cute, they get caught and put outside. I particularly like those tiny red ones that always seems to run in circles.

The people though... dumb spider reminds me of those people who get your email or friend you on FB and then send you a thousand messages a day to buy their book. One, personal, targeted at release FINE, I will help. MULTIPLE? dumb. I think your dumb spider may just be overly ambitious. He is trying to catch YOU in his inadequate web.

LTM said...

@Rayna--you're right... but the good news is these *were* sorta stolen! The shop owner wasn't there, so her neighbor shopowner called her to see if the plant was for sale. She said $20, to which I frowned. (Rip off!) So neighbor said she'd just pinch off some of the root for me... I just checked 'em and they are SO happy outside. :D

P.S.
My little cousin renamed dumb spider flirty spider. Now you've named him sneaky spider... These kids should form a group! ;p

LTM said...

@WT--Ew! You + me. Big, ugly = smash city. We don't have the red ones, but we have these little dalmatian looking ones that jump. I think they're cute, so I let them live... :D

P.S.
Did I mention I have this book... j/k ;p

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

What a great analogy! (also: transparent gekkos? How cool!)

I don't know if it's smarts or savviness, or sometimes just luck. But I'm a big believer in making your own luck by paying attention to how things work around you. :)

Nice post!

LTM said...

Hi, Susan! Yes, we have see-through gekkos. ICK! But they eat lots of bugs... I agree w/you re: paying attention. Hello? ;o) Thanks for stopping by!