The Joro spiders are apparently inviting all their friends to come here and take up residence, because their numbers continue to grow. I counted 37 Joro spiders in webs next to the house. There are more in the trees, but I only counted the ones that are cocooning my dwelling in an apparent attempt to take me hostage for ransom money.
Their silk is yellow, and that's pretty cool. There's something romantic and mythical about a golden web. But it's still a problem when they use that silk to blockade your path. Don't fence me in, spider bro!
Even though I appreciate spiders and the role they play in controlling more troublesome insects, I'm reaching the end of my tolerance, so I'm going to start knocking down some webs soon. Not today, because it's wet and muggy and musty and the mosquitoes are a plague and it's just plain miserable outside and I simply can't summon the energy. It's rained almost every day since July 1st, and the outdoors smells like it. It's swampy enough that I imagine it's only a matter of time before a little green dude shows up to teach me to use the Force.
On the positive side, there are a bunch of little trophies in those webs. The spiders are doing good work.
In unrelated news, a motorist saw a bear chase a trio of deer across the road just a few miles from where I live. I'm not enthused about the prospect of encountering a bear.
Speaking of predators, I saw a red-tailed hawk on the ground with a bird it had killed. It was a young hawk, and it seemed pretty excited about it. It was sort of hopping around in between pecking at it. It eventually picked up the bird and flew away.
It's a jungle out here, folks.
