Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 00:44:59 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: spiders, was Snakes vs. Birds? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Now I am not fond of spiders. I will not handle them. My fear has something to do wih the frequency with which spiders bite me. I must be tasty to them. I still have nerve damage from a bite to my left hand from about 19 months ago (same one that hindered my owl banding for those of you visiting that night). But I don't kill them. Beiunf less afraid of them than my wife, I am the household spider relocator. But that usually involves complicated maneuvering with cups and paper to the nearest quiet corner or outdoors. My wife once squashed every one she found, but now leaves them all for me. Their webs are beautiful and are used by some birds in the manufacture of nests. And so many birds eat them. I can sit for hours watching a spider build its web and catch and eat insects. As for variety of color and patterns to rival birds, spider are without equal. In a message dated 7/9/03 7:39:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Warblerick@AOL.COM writes: > Tom, > I must confess that I used to hate spiders (more a fear that hatred). > Then in college I had a roomate who had a tarantula for a pet (the > exotic animal pet-trade is a whole different subject, maybe for when > things get slow in the winter...). Anyway, after having his "pet" > crawl up my arm, I got over my fear, > and now can honestly say that I really like spiders. I wish they would come > out > with a good field guide to them. I do have a small field guide to spiders > webs, however... > > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================