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spiders, wasps, and other insects - oh, the horror
Monday, August 17th, 2020 12:21 amThere are 4 huge banana spiders* in the back yard. As in hand-sized with big thick abdomens. I've been keeping an eye on them (full of anxious dread) through the sun-room windows over the last few weeks since I discovered them. The one that was biggest to begin with disappeared, which had me concerned. (A spider whose whereabouts you know is better than a spider that could be anywhere. Or maybe even a spider and its millions of little baby spiders that have exploded from its swollen abdomen.) Maybe a bird got it, but its web seemed undisturbed. Slightly before that one disappeared, I discovered another one nearby. So there were 4 to begin with, and now are still 4.
*I looked up what kind they were. They have the tell-tale fuzzy black bands of the banana spiders on their legs. Unless someone asks to see a photo, I'll spare you all the horror of having to see it on your screen.
Maybe those spiders are the reason I haven't been getting bit as much by mosquitos outside lately.
Another unforeseen benefit of them is that today, upon seeing an ~2-inch (wolf?) spider in the garage, it didn't scare me at all. I had a little chat with it, and told it so.
.
Around the same time as discovering the banana spiders...
I saw a black wasp fly into the doghouse on the porch, so I pulled off the top piece of the dog house's roof to discourage the wasp from building a nest in there. But I was shocked to find a nest already inside, right under the piece I'd pulled off. There are several wasps on or around it at all times. But at least they don't seem aggressive. I'm hoping they'll go away by winter, so I can remove the nest then. But I haven't had time to look up whether that's likely to happen, or if the nest will just keep getting bigger. I'm curious now whether wasps have queens like bees do, and what the wasps are doing while they're all congregating there on the nest. They seem sociable with each other.
It's a good thing the dogs aren't here, and that even when they come by to visit, they mostly ignore the doghouse.
.
I've seen tiny black ants on the floor in several rooms. Not enough of them to make me want to bring out the ant bait yet.
In the niece's bedroom, there were a lot of crumbs around the bed/mattress. I'd been getting ready to vacuum it up when I discovered those tiny ants as well as another tiny insect... after taking some photos and zooming in, they appear out to be saw-toothed grain beetles. I think I've gotten rid of all or most of them now.
New trick for catching small bugs like that and ants:
Scoop them up with small piece of paper and drop them into a white bucket. (Having it be a white bucket makes it easier to see them in there.) Most of them don't think to start crawling up the sides of the bucket, so that gives me time to catch several at once. Then I can take the bucket outside, turn it upside down and give it a few thumps to shake them out into the grass.
*I looked up what kind they were. They have the tell-tale fuzzy black bands of the banana spiders on their legs. Unless someone asks to see a photo, I'll spare you all the horror of having to see it on your screen.
Maybe those spiders are the reason I haven't been getting bit as much by mosquitos outside lately.
Another unforeseen benefit of them is that today, upon seeing an ~2-inch (wolf?) spider in the garage, it didn't scare me at all. I had a little chat with it, and told it so.
.
Around the same time as discovering the banana spiders...
I saw a black wasp fly into the doghouse on the porch, so I pulled off the top piece of the dog house's roof to discourage the wasp from building a nest in there. But I was shocked to find a nest already inside, right under the piece I'd pulled off. There are several wasps on or around it at all times. But at least they don't seem aggressive. I'm hoping they'll go away by winter, so I can remove the nest then. But I haven't had time to look up whether that's likely to happen, or if the nest will just keep getting bigger. I'm curious now whether wasps have queens like bees do, and what the wasps are doing while they're all congregating there on the nest. They seem sociable with each other.
It's a good thing the dogs aren't here, and that even when they come by to visit, they mostly ignore the doghouse.
.
I've seen tiny black ants on the floor in several rooms. Not enough of them to make me want to bring out the ant bait yet.
In the niece's bedroom, there were a lot of crumbs around the bed/mattress. I'd been getting ready to vacuum it up when I discovered those tiny ants as well as another tiny insect... after taking some photos and zooming in, they appear out to be saw-toothed grain beetles. I think I've gotten rid of all or most of them now.
New trick for catching small bugs like that and ants:
Scoop them up with small piece of paper and drop them into a white bucket. (Having it be a white bucket makes it easier to see them in there.) Most of them don't think to start crawling up the sides of the bucket, so that gives me time to catch several at once. Then I can take the bucket outside, turn it upside down and give it a few thumps to shake them out into the grass.