A web of intrigue
There are quite a few things in life that puzzle me.
Of course there are the old standards, like where all the odd socks go and how do wire coat hangers breed, but there are quite a few other questions that have me quite frankly mystified.
Lately the sun has been swivelling across the sky at a somewhat lower angle, it being autumn, and this highlights all the cobwebs on the window ledge. Well, actually they are hanging between plants, covering the corners of the window panes and there is even one neatly connecting the aerials on my little wifi router. There is a stuffed reindeer that one of the grandkids left here and he has a grand collection all over his head.
Where the fuck do they all come from?
They annoyed me so much the other day that I cleaned them all away. Every single one. They’re all back happily festooning the place and glistening in the sunlight.
The garage ceiling is an area I can understand. That has those marvellous black yokes hanging from the ceiling like something out of a horror film, that look so heavy you’d wonder why they don’t break. They are caused by spiders who live there in their hundreds, and good luck to them. They stop Herself going out there which means I can hide all sorts of stuff in the sure knowledge that it’s safe from prying eyes.
But the living area is another matter. I see a spider in here maybe once or twice a fortnight. Each spider has its own little place in my memory as Herself tends to have a fit of the Shrieking Hystericals when she sees one, so I tend to remember the occasion with fondness.
Judging by the quantity and density of the cobwebs, a hell of a lot of effort has gone into their creation which must take a long time too. So where are the fucking spiders? I have never seen one making a cobweb. Never. They must wait until I’m in bed whereupon they mysteriously materialise out of nowhere, frantically do their stuff and then beam themselves back up to some planet or other where they live during daylight hours?
Why do they do it? Spiders webs are for catching food, but cobwebs never catch anything except dust. Even if something did get trapped, there’s no spider around to relish the feast, so it all seems rather pointless. Do they do it just to decorate the place? Some are quite impressive and can span across the ceiling for some distance, while others are intricate little patterns that just glisten in the sunlight.
Or do they make them just to annoy me?
What baffles me is how there can be a strand of cobweb spanning a gap of twelve or fifteen feet or more, how do they get it there? Can they jump incredible distances when we are not looking? Can they fly? Do they crawl down to the floor and then crawl across the floor and then climb up the other side, all the time pulling this strand behind them? And what point is a single strand, anyway?
I can understand the outdoor ones and I frequently see gossamer threads floating around the garden, but indoors? Unless the house has some fierce draughts blowing around the place? Maybe they use a bow and arrow arrangement?
Spiders do their business when we are not watching, just as the fairies dance around the raths and the forests when we are all soundly asleep in bed. Just as Santa Claus comes down the chimneys…
We’re not meant to see some things; we’re meant to admire and enjoy their after effects.
The flaw in that theory is that I can sometimes keep strange hours [one of the penalties of growing old?] and I still have never seen any in action. Do they have a cloak of invisibility?
I’ve never seen the fairies, because they like to be active when they are not being watched, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t exist.
A suggestion from BD as to one of the culprits?
It’s spiders in and on my car which are getting to me. Every morning I have to clear dense webs from the wing mirrors. Inside the car very fine gossamer-like strands are in each corner of the windscreen. They’re not prey-catching webs, they are just masses of wispy strands.
I’ve fumigated the wing-mirror housings and I’ve sprayed the inside of the car, all to no avail. Where are the wee buggers hiding?
I get the spiders on my wing mirrors too. I just leave them there and watch them hang on for dear life as I drive. It’s great fun, particularly when one ends up at the end of a long thread, oscillating in the wind!
The flat here is littered with spider swats and spray. Think I’ve closed off most but clearly not all ways in. Lately, I’ve taken to leaving dead spiders about, not unlike miscreants on the gibbets lining the road into town.
I mentioned before [I think] about herself using Eucalyptus oil to keep them out. It works a treat. I have see very ittle evidence of them this autumn except for the cobwebs. I cleaned them all down yesterday but already they are starting to reappear.
I mentioned before [I think] about herself using Eucalyptus oil to keep them out. It works a treat. I have seen very little evidence of them this autumn except for the cobwebs. I cleaned them all down yesterday but already they are starting to reappear.
You can’t expect spiders to just hang around waiting – they have a life tha knows! 😀 Maybe they’ve been ordered to congregate by the Spiders Union ready for the bus to transport them to areas where Harlequins are getting out of hand? See LastFurlong post 😉
“See LastFurlong post” Which one? Dogs or ladybirds?
Ah yes. Ladybirds. I missed the connection for a moment. Do spiders eat ladybirds?
Apparently they do! Those harlequins have appeared over here too so the ginormous spiders are in for a good buffet! The downside of that is – will the ginormous spiders get even bigger? 😮
My aunt told me that having horse chestnuts, conkers, sitting about a room keeps spiders away.
In other countries ostrich eggs, presumably blown, serve the same purpose. Have done for centuries.
Welcome Doonhamer! An interesting idea… I must try that and see if it stops the cobwebs. Now all I have to do is find some Horse Chestnuts around here. It’s mostly coniferous stuff in this area, so maybe I should plant one or two in the woods?
Is a cobwebb only an indoors web? I just call them all spider webs down here. Since it is now spring here the bloody place is crawling with spiders inside and out making every sort of web imaginable. The indoor ones are the messy sort and don’t bother me much, it’s the outdoor ones you have to watch out for, especially the Golden Orb Weavers. They are a fairly big spider that weave 4 foot diameter webs between the trees in our backyard or from the clothes line to a tree, if you walk face first into them two things happen, 1 you bounce backwards cause the web is like steel wire, 2 you panic and start flailing around as you know that the spider is always sitting in the middle of the web and is now most likely on your back or worse! I never go out at night without a torch and a large stick.
The outdoor ones don’t bother me at all. In fact neither do the indoor ones, but Herself gets a bit frantic if she sees one so I have to be on the alert.
Spiders’ webs are grand. I love the really neat ones where they form perfect geometrical patters. Cobwebs on the other hand are just aimless threads strung around the place with no rhyme nor reason and sometimes just look like someone has sneezed dry powder at the window.