I have seen the baby spiders hatch out and fly off into the great big world. In spring, one a warm sunny day when their is a nice breeze blowing, if you are lucky, you can see them hatch out all at once. There are hundreds, if not thousands of t-tintsy spiders, hardly more than a speck of dust to the naked eye. They shoot out thousands of silken threads and ride off on them in the wind. Birds and frogs gobble them up, but some live and grow and the next year, in late summer you will see them again in your garden - giants by comparison. ogrose, I have quite literally, but certainly by accident, stuck my head into their webs while gardening many times. The spider just scoots over and waits for me to exit. Never had one become aggressive with me. My children used to love them, giving them names. They were greatly influenced by Charlotte's Web. I always taught them to be curious about Nature, but cautious. Look but don't touch. Study it, observe and learn from other creatures. Of course, they often DID touch. :)

wow, I would be so mad if someone killed one of our spiders (I don't even kill them in the house). My sister-in-law saw one of the zipper spiders on our deck and commented that if it got near her she'd be killing it, I told her she'd be sorry. Sheesh, they are harmless and gorgeous. Around here we call them Zippers cos how their web looks like a Zipper. I like spiders, but I have to admit, I'm not too fond of Black Widows, I will kill them, we have tons of them around here. Sorry I turned the bubble bee post into a spider post. Pam

Barb...both happy and sad....Happy he is moving forward with his life. Knowing he will go far as long as he stays focused on his studies, and learns to quit being so wasteful. Sad because he is moving on and we will be seeing very little of him in the next 4 years or so. We havent made any new life adventures yet. House needs some TLC. I suppose first we will get used to having a home with just us and the critters and go from there. Chell I used to be a dog and cat groomer. I loved it too. But my employer was a deedeedee. Never had the money to pay me each week and always "owed" me. And she never gave me my tips either.Then at the end of the year she reported more earnings for me than what I had really made.Fortunitly I kept records and proved my case and won, so make sure you don't let the same happen to you. I have kept my clippers, blades and accessories and still will do a neighbors dog or two once in awhile to keep my skills up.....but don't miss the hair stuck in places I did'nt know existed....lol. Love all the pictures the everyone post. Always enjoy seeing ya'lls babies. Regina

Lisa, I do too! Sometimes I rue the day I planted 4 o'clocks because each year they sprout a thousand babies per plant and I have to ruthlessly yank out all those babies or they'd take over every square inch of garden space, but I leave them outside the garden and I leave them along the fenceline (because, you know, once you've let them reach a certain size there in the fenceline, you cannot dig out that big tuber without tearing up the fence). I also have years where volunteer flowers and herbs pop up as thick as grass and I'm just weeding, weeding, weeding to keep the garden under control. But then, on the other hand, I don't have to run to the store and buy new plants every year because there's no room for new plants. I like plants that spread vigorously and reseed vigorously but having them around means I do have to work to keep them under control in early spring or I totally lose control of everything and it becomes a crazy mess. Jessaka, We had dollar weed for a long time sort of taking over the ground beneath an old post oak tree. I was okay with it being there because that area had become too shady for grass. This year, in all that May and June flooding, the dollar weed disappeared, so now I wonder if it drowned. I didn't think anything would kill dollar weed. I think most people are too quick to pull out native plants that have found a niche and will grow in it and then they run to the store and buy imported non-natives, plant them in that spot and then have to fight to keep them alive there. I wish there was more respect for letting native plants grow where they sprout----especially if they sprout in a location where it has been difficult to keep other plants happy. Dawn