Monday, September 8, 2008

Meeting More Garden Friends!



Seems like we are welcoming more and more friends into our garden lately! First our hummingbirds, frogs and toad sightings - now we've spotted a praying mantis hanging out on our tomato plants and identified a friendly black and yellow garden spider. I have to admit, spiders give me the willies. I know many are harmless to humans and they pull their part by consuming tons of annoying pests. However, I can't get past their creepy-crawliness. I am trying though...I befriend them as I identify them - I am pretty much ok with daddy long legs and the everyday garden spider. As long as I know where their web is and as long as that location isn't near where I hang out - its fine! It is those dang wolf spiders that keep moving into my compost bin and jumping out at me along the fence line that I can't come to terms with. No spider in our yard should resemble an escaped pet tarantula. Sorry - just not having it! No fur and nothing larger than a half dollar thank you.

Check out PrairieVisionDesign's garden friend at her recent post - it inspired me go and out and snap a shot of our new garden spider friend.

4 comments:

a/k/a Nadine said...

Um no. I can't get on board with the spider friendships. No thank you.

Electronic Goose said...

I'm trying to get over my willies about spiders, too! Actually, about a lot of insects ...

Stacy said...

Hehe! Here I go and write this brave post about befriending spiders and I just about fell backwards out of my chair shrieking this afternoon when one jumps at me on my desk at work. Had to have a coworker come kill it....spiders are definitely NOT my friend at work - they can stay outside on the far bushes FAR AWAY from me....but get close and they gotta die! :) I agree lots of bugs freak me out!

BerryBird said...

You don't have to kill even the worst offenders... I recommend catch and release. A very easy method is to invert a glass or cup over the spider, slide and envelope under, and voila! Your spider is trapped, to be released outside where it can go back to eating pesky bugs. I caught one by this method once that was so frightening I took it halfway down my block before releasing it.