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Elizabeth
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Nature study was decidedly creepy today. We had a Black Widow take up residence.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Maryan
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  -- that's as close as we have to scary on the emoticons.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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Carole N.
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Too close for comfort!
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 Carole ... in Wales
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Jen L.
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Ugh!
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Jen
dh Klete,ds (8/95),dd (12/97), dd (11/00), and ^2^ in heaven
"...the best state in which to glorify God is our actual state; the best grace is that of the moment..." St. Peter Eymard
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Cindy Mac
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I saw it live and in person, and I can tell you - blech - made my skin crawl  !
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Cindy - wife to Chris, mommy to my 4 sons!
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Kristen in TN
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Wow! Was she near a water source? We never saw any in Virginia until my husband took down a pool and found 15 or so. That was a real wake up call. After that we found them on the little tykes picnic table on the underside in a screw hole (water collected there) and in my garden cold frame. Thankfully they really are not aggressive and when I squished them no babies ever went wandering. 
This year in my pumpkin patch I saw a spider and thought it looked like a black widow, but it had a red stripe up it's back. When it turned over, there was the hour glass. Does anyone know about that?
God bless,
Kristen in TN
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lapazfarm
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Kristen in TN wrote:
This year in my pumpkin patch I saw a spider and thought it looked like a black widow, but it had a red stripe up it's back. When it turned over, there was the hour glass. Does anyone know about that?
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A couple of things: along with the red hourglass, the immature female Southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans) will have red dorsal markings which she loses when she matures, leaving only the red hourglass on her belly. Elizabeth's picture is a classic mature female.
Females of the Northern black widow (Latrodedtus variolus) keep their red dorsal markings into maturity, and may have white or yellowish dorsal bands (especially when young) as well. Males and juveniles often have these bands.
The real identifying character, of course is the hourglass, which in the Southern is entire and in the Northern is broken. I'd steer clear of either one.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Elizabeth
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Kristen in TN wrote:
| Wow! Was she near a water source? We never saw any in Virginia until my husband took down a pool and found 15 or so. That was a real wake up call. |
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Nope. No water anywhere near. She was under the eaves of a window. She's in a sealed rubbermaid container and she's been there since last Friday and she is still alive (which gives me the total eebie-jeebies and utterly delights my eight-year-old)
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Cay Gibson
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Has anyone heard about the Brown Widows? Seems they came from Florida and the hurricanes have brought them into the La/Tx area. Of course, the hurricanes are blamed for anything new and strange.
Here's an article from the LSU AgCenter: Brown Widows Show Up in Louisiana
Their venom is more toxic than the black widow's and we've had whole sections at the docks and Port of Lake Charles blocked off due to a huge number of them being found.
Spiders and snakes...I can't stand either one.
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Cay Gibson
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lapazfarm
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We used to get brown widows around my grandma's pool in Tampa when I was young. They would get in the corners of the screen enclosure.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Kristen in TN
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Holy cow! Never heard of brown widows. Thanks for the article, Cay. If they are in Louisiana now, they will probably be up here in southern TN before long.
Thanks for the black widow info Theresa. I knew it was one, I just never saw that stripe before. Until I saw one, it always worried me that I wouldn't know one. But they are pretty much unmistakable.
God bless,
Kristen in TN
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: The spider at my house
