'Less aggressive than the black widow..." Then this spider must almost be DEAD, lol! I can't imagine a less aggressive spider than the BW. I'd suggest that is a 'not to worry too much' type of thing. Brown widows have always been around. I'll bet that there are not any more of THEM but more of US. ;-) Brown recluse reports have gone way up in recent years for the same reason. It's good to have a warning and reminder, though. That's for sure! We need to use our common sense when working in locations that might be a good harbor for these reclusive (that's the widows, too) spiders. I always wear gloves when cleaning out the garage, for example. Turning your porch furniture upside down for periodic cleanings is a good idea, too. (Take that from personal experience, eeeek.) I ALWAYS check out picnic tables at parks, etc. You know that little air space between stacks of cell packs or pots? (We all have those stacks, right?) PERFECT location for any of these three spiders. (Take that from personal experience, too.) What other spider stories do we have?

I am a newbie at gardening. We bought a house 3 years ago in the fall after everything had died. Needless to say the next year we had a heck of a freeze after most trees, plants had started to show and nothing bloomed. Then last year what a surprise we got and excitment when things actually bloomed and we can now figure out what we kinda have. Other than one plant that my husband loves but never, until now, have found out what it was. We have one loley old Turk's cap flower. I am so glad I went to your blog and saw the picture of what we could not figure out. Although I don't have a blog etc or pics. Thanks very much for posting yours and helping us out. It was wonderful to find out what we have around the house.

Dogpooponshoes, glad to hear you're ok. Only area of US 90 I've been able to get to so far is by the Bay St Louis/Pass Christian bridge. Of course the bridge is gone. And looks like pretty much every thing for 3 blocks in from the bay is gone or nearly. I'm up in Diamondhead. Fortunately above the storm surge. Am making a futile attempt to protect what's left of the garden from the roofers, fence people, tree cutters. They survived the storm but many are not expected to survive the recovery. (I have a small prince sago, the tree cutter ran over it with a large bucket truck. Survived that. And I'm not sure what the fence people did to it. But it looks a lot worse now. (And I'm not sure where to find another one. Will wait to see if it sends up new growth next spring. Guess I was lucky enough and far enough alone to begin thinking of what to do with the garde. (Replace the magnolia with a few mature palms perhaps. And spend some time going through the Pensacola nurseries this weekend. I did drive down Beatline. The Beatline nursery. The building looked ok. But everything was dead. The oaks weren't the only ones to take a hit. The pines along I-10 look about dead. As you pointed out. There was pretty much of a drought after Katrina. So there wasn't anyting to wash the salt out. Judging from the high water mark on the Kiln/Waveland interchange. The area was covered by about 15 feet of gulf water. Here is a link that might be useful: Mississippi coast

It's not even Tax Day yet, but it's 85 degrees here today.70% humidity. With pollen turning everything yellow. I can't imagine being in the South and having the home open to that. Our "windows open" days for this year have consisted of about 8 hours total, only during the middle of the day when no one was home. Saturday was nice for a couple of hours, until it got too hot. It will be too hot for the rest of the summer. Yes, summer starts in late April here. Then there was the pollen. September stays above 90 for most of the month, with ragweed pollen too. October does start some pretty nice weather, and some days in early November can be 70 degrees and sunshine too. But again, you are limited to the hours that you aren't working and can actually enjoy those days. Which doesn't work out to much time for the expense involved. I'd rather just have a traditional patio slider or french door. The costs won't be so high, but you'll still be able to have some fresh air when the weather allows.