Nightmare

[vaneramos]

When we were kids, my neighbourhood friends and I cut a maze of trails and treeforts through the woods and undergrowth on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. We had our own wilderness. Fantasy adventures took shape there. Whenever the neighbours' Uncle Louis came to visit, he chased us around The Jungle and performed grass torture if he caught us.

Comments

[bixie]

I remember those from wisconsin! yikes!

also, aren't banana spiders those fat brown/orange ones? if so, we get those in the blueberry field and they're quite...intimidating.

[vaneramos]

"Banana Spider" was just the name we used as kids. You're right, that common name is usually applied to another spider, with which I'm unfamiliar.

The common name for this one is Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider.

[eloquentwthrage]

We have those spiders here as well. If you leave your porch light on, they will set up shop in large spaces where insects can fly into their webs. Huge, seven foot webs. I've walked into a few of them in my day with no deleterious effects. I was much more worried about the huge hornet that found its way into my house last night. It was 2/3 the size of my pinkie finger-not kidding.

[vaneramos]

That would freak me out, too. But yes, these spiders are considered harmless.

[djjo]

Lordy that's a big creepy spider!

I think that's worse than my run in with the wolf spider in the cottage last week. Yeash!

[vaneramos]

Oh not really! These spiders shake their webs to scare predators (or blundering humans) but they are not aggressive, and are considered harmless. It's body is about as wide as my thumbnail, and a little longer.

[anonymous]

I just don't know how you could stand to get that close to that spider. I read your comment about them not being aggressive but they just look like they could kill you. We have on living in our azalea bush right now. I am to afriaid to get close enough to try and kill him or her.

[vaneramos]

I know, spiders are the one thing that freaks me out. It's strange how I forget about qualms when I have a camera in hand.

If it looks like this, it's probably a her. The males are smaller and, I think, less colourful.