Jinxed Myself

It must have been something I said! Just about two weeks ago I mentioned the 'Itsy-Bitsy Spider' in reference to rain coming and washing the spider out. Now it's come back to haunt me as I was confronted by two not so itty-bitsy-spiders!

I am not arachnophobic, as long as something/someone has made me aware that there is a spider....there. And truthfully, I guess I'm not really phobic if I'm surprised, I just don't like it. 

As we were preparing to load the truck for a weekend getaway to NC, where our RV awaits, I grabbed a laundry basket I use for carrying stuff from the house to the RV. The laundry basket had been left in the RV garage in April. I grabbed it, put my fingers under the 'lip' of the top edge, and ran into something fuzzy. Ick. There was a complex net of webbing with a spider egg sac enmeshed in it. Ick. I didn't stop to take a picture. I grabbed a tissue and snatched the mess out of the crevice. I didn't stop to look at whether the egg sac was spiky or smooth. I did notice that the egg sac was close to 3/8" in diameter. Ick! I simply removed it, wadding up the tissue and tossed it.* 

My webbed mess only had one spider egg ball in it,
but looked kinda like this. Ick

A bit later I picked up the laundry basket and happened to notice a bulbous-butt spider. It looked a lot like this picture from the Internet. OMG - that is a brown widow spider. And, if I were a betting person, I'd put money on it...I had a close break with a brown widow - the bite isn't as bad as her cousin, the black widow, put painful never-the-less, according to the Internet. And, she is highly protective of her egg sacs, and will drape her legs around it to 'fiercely' defend it. Ick! She is crumpled up in a tissue near her egg sac. 

Fast forward two days. We are now at our RV site in NC. We arrived after a long, long drive, climbed into the RV and I was ensnared by long, thick, sticky web. It seemed to run from one side of the RV to another. Bleech. Whenever I run into a spider web, I always worry about where the web spinner might be. I didn't run into the spider, and both The Mister and I had instances throughout the evening, running into that darn web! 

In the back of my mind, I must admit, that I kept dwelling on where the manufacturer of that web might be residing. But, we had driven all day. We were tired, and we both went to bed.

I'm surprised that I didn't dream about spiders. One of my friends has a recurring nightmare where, when she opens her eyes there is a huge, black spider suspended above her head. When she sees it, she blows out a breath, like blowing out a candle, and the spider disappears! Hmmm, maybe if I blow on the next spider I see it will disappear?! 

I didn't have to wait long to find the web builder. The next morning, as I went to take the dogs out for a walk, I found the owner of that icky, sticky spider web. She was cowered in the corner of the steps of our RV. She looks a bit 'more' because of the reflective surface of the step. But, trust me....she was huge! Like, 4" in diameter. Ick! (The Internet tells me she is one of the largest spicers in North America)

To be honest, she reminded me of Marcellus, the Octopus in "Remarkably Bright Creatures" (if you haven't watched that...it's a sweet movie!), as she was huddled in the corner. I grabbed our broom, and gently swept her outside to make a web another day**....but please, not in our RV!

Again, if I were a betting woman, I'd probably win a bet that this 'little' gal is a 'Dark Fishing Spider'. 

Ick!

And, another interesting fact....both the Brown Widow and the Dark Fishing Spider females cannibalize their mates. Ick!

* I tossed the tissue wrapped egg in the trash can in my sewing room. Now....I'm worried. While I'm away could those spiderlings 'hatch'? Ick!

** The Internet tells me that the Dark Fishing Spider doesn't make a traditional web to ensnare food. She jumps on her prey. However, she does make a long dragline to find a mate, or to keep her safe if she should fall while traversing through trees (or around an RV!).