(Shudder) Spiders! Part 2

So, here's the research.....the offending spider in this case is a common flower spider - normally white but it takes on the colours of things it is around and can be white, yellow and even green. It gets its name as it normally sits in a flower and waits for its prey. Umm, do you really want to know how it captures and eats it prey???? Let's skip the nastiness - but all spiders do have venom to kill/paralyze their prey (umm, yep, we won't go much further into that, ok?)- what changes is the extent that venom is poisonous to us.

According to Pest controls - the spiders are in my home because they are comfortable - they are warm, feel safe and have enough food. Yeah, like I need to pay for that wisdom. To get rid of them I need to get rid of their food supply and make them feel unwanted. Spiders eat live prey - aphids, small insects, etc. We don't have many live flowers in our house, but we do have dried ones. We all clean quite well as both Justin and I have allergies - so not much dust for dustmites - it's winter so no flies. SO WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY HOME????

With a wry grin my son replies "Bugging you, Mom".

I'm buying a teenaged boy-sized swatter.

Fascinating info on the flower spider:

"The adult female flower spider is larger than the male and takes greater amounts of prey. She must consume more prey to lay eggs and guard the egg sac. When she finds a suitable perch to ambush prey, she will change color to match her surroundings. But it is not ingested pigments; it is a change in morphology. When the adult female flower spider remains on a yellow flower, she becomes yellow. The process takes two to three days and the longer she is on the flower, the deeper her coloration. Eventually her entire body, including her legs, will become yellow. A yellow flower appears yellow because it is reflecting yellow wavelengths of light. The stimulus for the female's color change is the reflected yellow light. It causes production of a yellow pigment which is released into the hypodermal tissues. ("Diet-induced and morphological color changes in juvenile crab spiders (Araneae, Thomisidae)", V.R. Schmalhofer, Journal of Arachnology (28), 2000)" (http://www.killerplants.com/renfields-ga... Jan 29, 2005)"

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Copyright Paym Bergson January 2005 All Rights Reserved.

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