Saturday, April 24, 2010

THE SEASON OF SPIDERS

Perhaps I should have said the year of spiders. I've noticed the absence of blowflies and mosquitos this year as well as being able to walk without those little bush flies going up one's nose. But the variety of spiders seen around the house is out of the ordinary.

The latest sighting of a black body and scuttling legs was on the top of the screen door at the front of the house. Unfortunately it was right where the slidey thing is to hold the door open but I was careful with the fingers.
It had grown quite big in the last week along with the web from which protruded the legs (no body) of its departed mate, eaten when his duty was done. Mrs. Black and getting larger had a familiar shape and on Thursday I had a good look at the big red stripe on her back.
Now I always thought that Redbacks liked to be under things, tiles, bricks, logs etc but never on the top of a screen door that opened umpteem times a day for the cat.

Well, she had a nice final meal and a couple of weeks in the sun but laying eggs at head height and maybe coming in the house was not on. Surface spray on the door and fly spray for a quick release. That was the plan but she wasn't going easily, more fight than a dog over a bone. The cat who never takes notice of anything unless it's in a dish started to pat at it with her paw.
That's all I needed a cat with a spider bite so she was locked in until the end.

So that's a total of five species seen, Golden Orbs, Daddy long legs, Redback, Huntsman and that big black brute still hiding behind the begonia. I tell you, I put my hand in the box for the mail very carefully these days.

12 comments:

iODyne said...

me too - today when I lifted the bin lid there was a female redback in a web. I left her there.
just did not want to get involved.

Lord Sedgwick said...

"that big black brute still hiding behind the begonia."

Dammit! You spotted me.

Back to the hiding under the biggest aspidistra in the world.

River said...

Fly spray? Heck, just swat them with a fly swatter, much cheaper and just rinse off under the tap. I haven't seen many spiders in my yard lately and only one really tiny one inside. I have seen a few at work though, (in a supermarket!!), two of them in customers "green" shopping bags, and the odd one here and there crawling on the floor. I squish them under my shoe.

JahTeh said...

MStacks, at least that's where a redback ought to be, not on a front door. I had to do her in, I could see the eggs, the invasion force.

MiLord with his usual delusions of grandeur, skinny bearded millipede more like it.

River, I would have needed a lump of 4x2 to deal with this one. Now I'm going to be watching the shelves in the supermarket in case of crawlers.

Jayne said...

Did you know...cheap rubber thongs (the footwear kind) slapped against any surface make short work of those critters.
Even those whopping great hairy Huntsmans they breed on steroids up the bush are no mach for the plaster wall and thong sandwich.
*squelch*

Anonymous said...

'of its departed mate, eaten when his duty was done'

You take no glee in this sentence, do you.

R.H. said...

This title: 'The Season of Spiders' reminds me of the loveliest poem I have ever read: Season(ing)s of Love! -By RH.
The fact that it was written by me is purely coincidental. Truly
But I am not always romantic, good heavens no!- you have to make a living. Currently I'm Personal Assistant to a Mad King of Thornbury. He doesn't pay much so I have to grab what I can. Nominally I expect just $50 for a letter, and he quibbles over that! What a dog, while the birds at Wood Street cop a tenner just for a look at their tits.
Well I've made a discovery, mental illness affects hygiene, but not expediture. The insane are as thrifty as anyone.

Dr Ruth Vine
Chief Psychiatrist
50 Lonsdale St
Melbourne Victoria 3001.

Dear Dr Vine

Thanks for your letter of 30 March 2010 in which you advise that Geoffrey W return to court to have his order varied. The court (not surprisingly) is heavily influenced by what his doctors want, in which case, if the doctors oppose what W wants (i.e. at trial at taking his medication unsupervised) then he is unlikely to succeed.

In any event, as you've noted, the current order requiring supervision of this medication for seven days a week has since been reduced to five days a week. It was done by his doctor. Apparently the order can be varied at his doctor's discretion anyway?

Meanwhile, aside from the humiliation of having people calling around to witness him swallow his tablets at night he is limited as to which part of this city he may reside in because very few areas have these people available.

Professor Dolan was happy for him to move to Frankston but his current management (social workers, MST) are against the idea. When he wanted to move to Epping they didn't mind that, although it's a demographic likely to set fire to him. If he had a free choice he'd move up to the Dandenongs where eccentricity is much appreciated. He wants a garden, that's all, or to live near the sea.

This isn't a matter of him seeking total unsupervision -we realise that will never happen, it's a matter of freedom to live in an area that suits him rather than an area which suits someone else.

Thanks for your attention to this

R.H.


No reply yet.

From Dr V. Queen of Psychiatry.

hazelblackberry said...

Endless, endless shuddering.

JahTeh said...

Jayne, there hasn't been made the size of thong I'd want to squelch a huntsman.

Andrew, the thought of eating my ex-mate is stomach churning.

Robbert, they'd murder him in Frankston but you're right about the Dandenongs although he could get lost going from the house to the street.

Sorry HB, at least I didn't put up a photo of the body or the little legs that are still hanging on the door.

R.H. said...

Psychiatrists seem normal but they're hard as nails. Each have a special interest they want to study, eg: insight, aggression, and so on, in schizophrenia. Human Services patients especially, become lab rats, shoved from one doc to another. It's the same with social workers, everyone gets a go. Chronic cases like King Geoff become exhibits, that's all. Used for training.

Frankston has a good mix, unlike Epping for instance (and Werribee, Point Cook, Cranbourne, Roxborough Park, Melton, Taylors Lakes, Sanctuary Lakes, Manor Lakes...*) where people live in houses they can't pay for and want to take it out on someone.


*Lakes, what a laugh: make a hole and put some water in it.

Kath Lockett said...

Fly spray won't do it - it'll just soak them and use up your can. Get one of your thongs and whack it - smash it - to death!

JahTeh said...

I must admit, Rh, I went to 3 shrinks before I got the right one for me.

Kath, were you and Jayne separated at birth or just went to the same school of Thongkill, the ancient martial art of squelching?