Thursday, August 30, 2007

Anyone out there Arachnophobic?

Because, well.... DAMN!



WILLS POINT, Texas (AP) -- Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.



Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.


"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."


Right now, the Ragin' Mrs. is jumping around going "EEW! EEW! EEW!" And she probably doesn't even know why, until she reads this news.


A squad leader of mine when I was stationed in 2ID told me about his inital tour in the military. He was sent to Panama. And his new Squad Leader was giving him the run down about what to expect down there, what not to do, where not to go, yada yada yada. And in between telling him not to bother the monkeys and don't go into the jungle alone, he was told "Oh, and watch out for the spider." He asked "What kind of spiders?" His Squad Leader looked at him and said "No, not spiders; just watch out for the spider." So SSG Mac, who back then was Private Mac, asks "OK, just where is this... spider... I'm supposed to watch out for?"


"Oh, it's around the back of the barracks. Go take a look if you want, just don't touch the web."


So he trots around back of the barracks and sees:



That, my friends, is Nephila clavipes, or the Golden Silk Spider. It can grow to be over four inches long. And it had built it's web from the eaves of the barracks to the ground.

It was huge.

Now, I'm not squigged by much, but I think that if I walked around the back of the barracks and saw that thing hanging there, looking at me, I'd be inclined to buy the biggest damn bottle of Raid I could find and hose down that entire side of the building.

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