Chapter 1806: Wherein Dee annoys the crap out of a spider with a spray bottle

But first...

I swear that (with the exception of scissors) I don't find most left-handed products all that necessary, but I WANT THIS. As in, where have you been all my life I want this.

Yes, I know that it's not strictly a left-handed product, but think of the lefty applications. Imagine working in graphite and not having the side of your hand look like it's auditioning to play the Tin Man. Imagine being a left-handed kid and not smudging the bejeebers out of your whole page when you're learning to write. It makes me want to commit the sacrilege of cannibalising a pair of my mom's circa 1960s gloves just to get a feel for how it might work.

And yes, I am currently losing my freaking mind over the idea of a one-fingered glove. You right-handers just don't know.

Anyway. Spider.

Yesterday when I was prowling the yard in search of camera fodder I noticed a large spider apparently hovering in the air in front of one of the basement windows. The apparent hover was because the web wasn't very visible, and was sitting at a bit of a weird angle to the window well. I just managed to get the picture above before she scrambled over to her hiding place by the window, and getting shots of her there was pretty much impossible.

I figured that was it for this particular spider and her on-camera debut, but at least I could try for a web shot. Not ideal because of the light-coloured backdrop, but why not give it a go?

So, back inside for the spray bottle (well, truthfully, back inside and not finding the spray bottle, asking my dad where he moved it, going back outside in a huff when he didn't remember moving it, and having him bring it out to me a few minutes later when it turned out that it was exactly where it was supposed to be but for some reason I didn't see it)  and a misting for the web to make it more visible.

I should have figured that vibrating the web with the water would bring the spider back out again. There she sat, getting wetter and wetter as I loaded her artwork down so the camera could see it. Poor stupid thing.

These definitely aren't the best spider pictures I've taken and I do wish the web wasn't in front of light siding, but it's actually the first time I've tried the whole web-misting thing. I think you'll be seeing more of this because it was kind of fun.

The spider itself? Probably a Jewel Spider or Jewelled Araneus. I didn't get the best look at her top side, but she did seem to have the diagnostic bumps on the top of her abdomen. They're in the Orb Weaver group and are one of our largest spiders here in Alberta, although this one was definitely no giant.

Assuming that she mates, she'll lay eggs in an egg sac and then die a few days later. No overwintering for her. Think Charlotte's Web, if that helps. No pig, though.

There was another large Araneus over on the greenhouse. Definitely not a Jewel Spider this time, but the light wasn't good enough to tell whether she was a Shamrock Spider, a Marbled Spider, or something else. My bet is on Marbled, since they're so variable. Shamrocks are more distinctive.

That might be a male up in the lefthand corner. I'd hate to say for sure, but it'd be weird for another spider to hang around and wait to be eaten otherwise. And yes, the size difference is normal.

I sprayed that web too, incidentally, but it didn't show up well in the photos.

Aaand I'm sure that most of my two fans are ready for me to be done talking about spiders now. Too bad, really, since it's my house/my rules all the time here at the home of all things pointless. If for some reason you want a closer look at the web and the spiders, as always click on the thumbnails for the bigger versions.

If you don't want a closer look, then just don't. Pretty simple, really. I wonder why it's so hard for some people to figure that part out...