Our beloved Kendra

July 9th, 2007 • chatter

DSC_1835,
originally uploaded by tehbizz.

I’m right scared of spiders. All sizes too. Except for baby spiders and granddaddy long legs, those are okay. But in the last week, we had a little spider of our own that was inhabiting the space between our bushes and our patio door. We had no idea what to do with it and like I said, I’m scared of them. So our little spinybacked orb weaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis) had a rough little stay at our house for a week. I named her Kendra.

It was rough only due to the fact that in the later hours of the day, we leave the house frequently and Kendra was rather intent on building her web from one of the bushes to our door or straight across the pathway so it was constantly being rebuilt and I frankly felt horrible. And I was still pretty scared of her even though I named her and took most of the photos we have of her. When we weren’t tearing up Kendra’s web, the famous south Florida rains did. But she was a quick little worker and managed to rebuild her webby empire in a matter of minutes with most of her orbs still intact. I don’t know what was in them but I hope it was some of those pesky mosquitoes that have been bustling about since our recent rains.

After contacting a very nice scientist from the University of Florida about what to do with her, we were presented with two options: move her or squish her. Even though I was scared of the little thing — that coincidentally, could bite me over and over and I’d be OK — I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. She’s now resting in a nice, giant palm tree just tens of feet from our door.

I kind of miss that scary looking terror. With all the rain and our constant mucking up of her web, we were very worried that we were endangering her survival and any potential for breeding there might be but we know that everything is OK now that she’s moved. Even if I am still a bit scared.