Spider, Spider,.....

I have to admit,

when I first set foot in my house

on the night I arrived,

it was a little scary.

I HATE SPIDERS!!!

Not that I am terribly afraid of them,

but I hate things that hide 

and then crawl around when you don't see them

(like roaches and snakes too....)

I took the above picture in my bedroom when I first arrived.

A huge spider on my cupboard near my bed!!!

What that picture does not show is 

the other four on the rest of the cupboard.

Even in South Africa, 

I have never seen spiders as big as some of the regular spiders I see here.

Needless to say, that first night as I lay in the dark trying to go to sleep I had to  give it over to God and decide to trust Him to watch over and protect me.

After all, I could not live out my days being afraid of falling asleep.

~~~

Since then, I have grown accustomed to these spiders and others.

(Below you will see a short video clip 

of a huge hyper spider running around my house.  

That night, the first time I saw it, 

I didn't know what it was, because it was so fast.  

Now I know it was a Roan/Rain/Roman Spider, 

here they call it any of those three names 

and they come out just before the rains come.

These spiders are very fast, but "friendly" spiders.)

I have learned to keep bug spray and a flip flop within arm's reach

and I have also learned which ones are harmful and which ones are helpful.

~~~

In fact, I was feeling quite used to them and rather kind toward the spiders

as long as they kept away from me.

This beautiful one was living in the corner right outside my front door.

I thought I would be courteous to him and let him live, 

as long as he did not come in the house.

The kindness ended after I came home one evening.

I had forgotten to turn the outside light on, so I walked down the path with my flashlight, hesitated to point the light up in the corner to be sure the spider was there and not on the door.

It was when my light hit him that night 

that I saw the bright red dot on his belly.

God made the creepy crawly creatures with warning signs.

I went in the house after taking these pictures and looked him up.

Yup!

I knew it!

He was not a friendly spider.

In fact, he is in the Black Widow family.

The article I read said that they lay 200 eggs per pregnancy and will do that 6 times in thier lifetime.

My mind went wild:

How many thousands of spiders are right outside my door 

or even in my house..... 

in that same corner was a "teenager" of the same kind,......

Oh dear!!!!

When daylight arrived the next morning,

I found a nice can of spray to kill them with.

"Sorry spider, I was trying to be kind, but found out you were not friendly".