Nature Loving Mom

I am a self-described nature lover.  I love being outside, walking in the woods, reading in the sun, swimming in lakes, gardening and any other outdoor activity.  I've been hanging out my laundry every possible moment.  We try to keep our birdfeeders filled so I can watch the birds.  It's in my DNA, and it was the way I was raised.

A few weeks ago the family and I saw a spider egg sack hatch out what looked like a million spiders.  They were cute and tiny and yellow.  We have always had a ton of spiders around our house and yard.  I think spiders of all sorts are super cool (they eat tons of bad bugs!) but also pretty creepy.  Last summer I had huge yellow spiders in my vegetable garden (at the tomatoes) and they were cool and had yellow patterning, but creepy because they were so big. If I remember correctly they were called "Yellow Garden Spiders" - original name, right?  I'm a little concerned these are the same brand of spider.  I've already seen them on my tomato cages, as well as on my fold-up clothes dryer I have outside.  These tiny spiders make cute tiny webs, but when they get bigger they will stop being so cute, I'm sure.

I remember last summer there being spiderwebs everywhere every morning.  The girls needed me to clear out all the areas on their play structure every day - and if we don't go out one day the webs are huge the second day!  There would also be webs from the car's mirrors to the house - you'd walk through them every morning because you could not see them!  Ick.  But the worst were the huge webs all through the garden with these giant spiders right in the middle - and if you broke the web apart it was back an hour later with the same giant spider in the middle.  And all I want is to pick my delicious tomatoes!  Very cool, though, were the dead bugs captured in these huge webs, all wrapped up and likely already digested by the spider's venom.  And being able to look at these spiders up close just increases their creepiness, but also my fascination with these amazing predators that help me keep my mosquito population under control!

I don't plan to do anything to discourage the spiders as I do, for sure, have an awesome fascination with these helpful, creepy, creatures!

Toodles!