big spider, Rock Creek Regional Park, Maryland,
photo © 2008 by R3. All rights reserved.
bugs, bugs everywhere
why do we invade their world
swirling stick circles
4 or 5 inch legs
webmaster spins silken tales
spider sense prevails
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, March 21st, 2008
-related to posts: haiku (one-a-day), WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY!, and My Totem Animal
-collaboration between R3 and QM: photograph by R3, haiku created by QM from lines out of R3’s Spider Tales (Comment 13) in Writing Topic – Insects & Spiders & Bugs, Oh, My!
Hum, It looked bigger in my head.
I reached over this spider twice before I saw it laying there. It was protecting an egg sag that was as big as a penny which was why it didn’t move even when we dropped the penny nearby.
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R3, it looks plenty big enough to me! Especially when you consider the size of a penny! D
Big spider won’t move
Mother’s instinct protects babes
do cobs make cobwebs?
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Great spider haiku, diddy!
R3, I think it looks plenty big, too. And I wondered how you could drop that penny there without her moving. Diddy hit on it in her haiku – protecting the young. That’s an animal instinct across all species.
I want to say, too, you run across some crazy things when you geocache (that’s where you saw this spider, isn’t it?).
Liz and I don’t do nearly the adventures that you do, R3, and we run into some hairy situations and lots of spiders! I’d like to do a post on geocaching someday. Liz and I have been talking about getting geared up to go back out again. Since she’s been in school, and with my travel last year, we didn’t do nearly as much. I miss the excercise!
Hey, R3, where was this photo taken? I wasn’t sure on the credit.
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QM,
We found this one in Rock Creek Regional Park just north of Washington, DC – http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/facilities/regional_parks/rockcreek/index.shtm
It was a cool to find such a park so close to a large metropolitan area. If you want a nice areal view plug these coordinates into GoogleEarth or into Google maps – N 39° 06.419 W 077° 06.901
R3
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Oh, cool. Looks like the park is near Rockville, Maryland, too. Okay, I’ll update the photo credit. Thanks!
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Really glad to see this post today. The spider looks *really* big to me. Nothing I would want to accidently sweep with my hand.
It looks like a hunting spider, kind of like a wolf spider but black. What are those called? Fishing spiders? Spiders are cool. I’ve come to appreciate them more the older I get.
Also, these are some wonderful haikus. I liked how you put yours together, QM, from R3’s comments. Nice one, too, diddy. Do cobs make cobwebs?
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ybonesy, that’s what I thought – the size of a wolf spider. BTW, what is a cob? How did the cob become part of the web?
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Found here – http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/cobweb?view=uk
cobweb
• noun a spider’s web, especially an old or dusty one.
— DERIVATIVES cobwebbed adjective cobwebby adjective.
— ORIGIN originally coppeweb: from obsolete coppe spider, from Old English.
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One more reference – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobweb
A spider web – cobweb is an alternate word, derived from the Middle English coppeweb (from coppe, meaning “spider”, a word that was introduced to England by Dutch invaders and originally pronounced ‘kab’)
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Thanks for the links, R3. And I got your note from the Online Etymology Dictionary (on our sidebar under Tools We Use), too, that the word cob for spider was almost dead until J.R.R. Tolkien used it in “The Hobbit” Leave it to a writer. Cool.
I’m heading outside to take photographs before all the snow drops from the trees. Bye for now!
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OK, so why have I never seen these spinners of cobwebs? Now, I’m a bit frightened & fear I must be swallowing these mysterious creatures in my sleep! They must be ghost spiders. In addition, cobwebs are very unsightly to look at! I wonder if anyone has ever seen a cob that is responsible for the cobwebs that appear in their homes? Perhaps I will NEVER step on another spider in my home, but take it back outside & set it free! D
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I was tooscared to readyour Haiku…. :0
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diddy, Ghost Spiders would be a good title for a book.
LB, your comments always make me smile. 8)
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Everyone…ENOUGH, ALREADY WITH THE CREEPY-CRAWLIES!
I agree with lonebeader, I had just squashed a spider before reading these, and now am in fear of retribution.
The only “bug” I think kindly of, is a ladybug. Although I loved E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web.” (and its adaptation into a children’s play.)
I am already being invaded by tiny black ants, but my daughter found the perfect solution; diatomaceous earth. You sprinkle it where you see ants…they like it and take it back to the nest to share, and it kills them there, (I guess.) It is not poisonous; safe to have around pets and kids. As kids, when we were bitten by big red ants, we made mud in the back yard andapplied it to the bitten area and that took away the pain, anyone know why?
Once, my brother caught a scorpion (shudder,) and placed it in a jar. It had no food, no water, nor air holes in the jar’s lid.
It was still alive, after a couple of weeks or so, and I asked my Grandfather how it could still be living. (This is, say, sixty years ago, and I still remember his answer,) “It’s too mean to die!”
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oliverowl, I located the same cure of using mud or red clay in one of my Foxfire books. They listed a few other remedies also, but said mud or red clay would relieve the pain & draw out the poison. I guess it must work. Was the soil made of clay?
A scorpion? I am thankful that we don’t have them here! D
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D, Our soil in the San Fernando Valley was the opposite of clay; very sandy, in fact. That one scorpion was the only one I remember seeing. What I thought were the ugliest were what we called the potato bugs,(like the one YB posted- (shudder!) Equally gross to me are what we called June bugs.
I think they are a beetle, as they have hard shells, and wings.
One summer I was a counselor at a girls’ summer camp, and the June bugs were such a nuisance. They have barbed legs that got tangled in our wash cloths, long hair, etc. They are attracted to light, and one night another counselor and I were the only ones still awake, making out reports. The lights in the cabin were the only ones on for miles around, and when we opened the screen door, hundreds of them flew in! We were hitting them with anything and everything we could find…screaming and laughing at the same time, until the owners of the camp came running, thinking we were being attacked by something at least as large as bears or mountain lions!! (Needless to say, they were not amused!)
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Oliverowl, I forgot to mention June bugs(our’s are beetles) in my comment, though they usually make their appearance here in July? I have had many land on me. They are absolutely disgusting! Our Mayflies come in June. I guess we are a bit off in the Northeast! But, June bugs, as much as I am grossed out by them, have big competition with the stink bugs! They look like little armored soldier’s & the smell is quite disgusting!
Interesting about the the soil you turned into mud. Now I wonder what the history behind the treatment really is! Perhaps I will check out more in my Foxfire books. D
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diddy & oliverowl, interesting about the mud and clay remedies. I wonder if it’s the drying out sensation – I just remember playing a lot in the red clay and mud as a kid and afterwards, the water was completely sucked out of my hands.
diddy, if you find the origins of the mud and clay remedy for red ant stings, let us know.
The June bugs. I remember some of the kids would tie strings around their legs when I was growing up and have them fly around in circles around them. Kids seem to have no fear of doing sometimes cruel things to critters and animals. In this case though, I was fascinated by the sound they made when they flew.
I didn’t know the June bugs smelled like stink bugs when squashed. I DO remember that their shells are hard and they have legs like roaches that get caught on everything. They are doing something right – they have survived for thousands of years.
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QM, I didn’t mean that June bugs stink. They are just so big & gross & have no problem landing anywhere on our bodies. When I was younger my brother would catch one & drop it down the back of my shirt. And yes, their shells are hard & the noise they make is unbearable!
I remember the visit to Georgia & how you dug up some red clay. Did you do anthing with it? We have a lot of red clay here also. It must have some sort of power to have sucked the water from your hands.
I’ll read more & see if I can get a better clue, however, the book did say it worked on all insect bites. D
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Hi all,
Red clay mud draws out the poison as it dries. Also tobacco and baking soda helps stings. Baking soda soothes and tobacco chewed or wet and put on a sting draws out the poison. These are old remedies.
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QM, Mom is correct. I have been researching on the healing practice & use of mud & clay this morning. Wow! There is a wealth of information out there! A lot of books have been written about clay & mud. A lot of them indicated that much of it has to do with the minerals that are in the earth. They also indicated that animal’s have been using mud as a healing agent for quite some time. Even eating dirt when they were ill.
The contents in the Foxfire books also list the use of wet tobacco & snuff. I remember that my mother used the the wet baking soda paste on our bug bites when I was a child.
Do remember Doodle bugs from your childhood? I know that R3, Mom, & J do! D
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Mom, thanks for corroborating the mud and clay remedy. And the tobacco and baking soda. I totally remember that when I got stung a few times.
diddy, great info from Foxfire on the mud and clay, too. It makes a lot of sense to me about animals eating dirt when they are ill, too. When I was anemic, I used to crave rust and iron (I think I’ve written about that before).
And YES, I remember the Doodle bugs! I had forgotten all about them. Those little gray bugs that curl up in a ball. Wasn’t there a song we used to sing about Doddle Bugs?
diddy, you asked what I did with the Georgia red clay I dug up when I was there about 7-10 years ago. I can’t remember what year that trip was. But I know I dug it up from the ball field near Daddy’s where I played ball a few times around age 11 or 12.
I think J. then mailed the clay to me and it’s still in that same box. I did use part of it in some art pieces I created. Some red clay tiles and a mold of my face out of clay. I did another face mold out of bee’s wax, but then burned it in a letting go ritual when I turned 50. Very powerful.
I hope to use that red clay in more art when I start creating pieces again. I have mixed it with paint, too, adding texture. But it’s the symbolism of place that I am most drawn to.
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QM, yes, there is a song about Doodle bugs. I think R3 knows how it goes. The first Doodle bug I encountered was on our last trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. R3 emailed us the words to the song, but it has been deleted.
I remember that clay & yes, J did mail it to you. How cool about the face masks & the letting go ritual in which you burned the bee’s wax one!
I also recall you writing about craving for rust & iron. The mineral thing makes sense! As a young child I also was anemic, but our physician told my mother to give me Geritol & feed me lots of liver. She tried in vain to disguise the liver in the use of different cooking methods. To this day I have will not eat liver & find the taste to be disgusting! D
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Hey! I had forgotten all about Doodle bugs…they weren’t too disgusting. I always wondered if they got dizzy, when we rolled them up and raced them, (shooting them like marbles down the sidewalk.) I watched Nature on PBS last night about “animals gone bad.” I hope fire ants & Africanized bees don’t get as far north as WY. It might be too cold for them to spend winter here. YB, are they where you live?
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yikes!
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Yes, we definitely have doodle bugs, although I’m trying to figure out if that’s what we call them. I know they’re called pill bugs, also, and I think we called them doodle bugs. I just found a load of them under some leaves that were stuck to the patio. Loads and loads, many small, most still thin and flatish from winter. One of the few bugs no kids I knew were ever afraid of.
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Wow, I guess we do have doodle bugs, but as yb pointed out, we call them pill bugs. I hadn’t thought of them as being one & the same! D
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Rolly-polys — it just came to me. That’s what we called them.
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http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues/2004-05-14/mimsci/index.html
Check out the link above. Is this the doodle bug we are all remembering? And, yb, if you think about it you are a different kind of Doodle Bug (when you sketch)! D
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diddy, great article on doodlebugs. It really hit home when it said, “classified under the genus Armadillo” – their little crinkled shells look exactly like an armadillo!
Maybe R3 will post the doodlebug song in the comments!
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[…] -related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – INSECTS & SPIDERS & BUGS, OH MY! and big spider haiku […]
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I think you are confusing pill bugs (rollie pollies) with doodle bugs (Ant Lions – http://www.antlionfarms.com/ ).
Rolliepollies are the ones that roll into a ball when you disturb them. Doodle bugs live in the ground in a funnel shaped trap that we used to take a stick and run it in a circle singing –
These are some of these lyrics that sound right but not all of them:
Doodle Bug
When I was a kid, this is what I did
Just to pass the time away,
I’d look all around until I found
A doodle hole, then I’d say:
Chorus:
“Doodle, doodle, doodle; bug, bug, bug,
Doodle, doodle, doodle; bug, bug, bug,
Doodle bug come out and look all around,
And doodle back in the ground.” Well, I don’t know why to a doodle I’d lie,
So this is what I’d say,
“Your house is on fire, your children will burn,
Doodle, fly up this way.”
Now that I’m grown, I wish I did own
A doodle piece of ground,
I’d get up each day, with a doodle I’d play,
Happiness I would have found
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OK, no wonder “doodle bug” didn’t sound like what we called the ones that roll up (pill bugs). I know what a doodle bug is. Around here we call them “sand lions” for the way they trap their pray in those sand funnels.
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When I went to research the doodle bug I found some that were called Ant Lions as R3 pointed out with his link. We do not have them here that I am aware of. Now the sandy mounds we discovered in North Carolina make sense. D
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Oh, I’m so confused now. I’ve never heard the term ant lion. But I saw it, too, when I looked up the doodle bug. So, just to clarify:
-sand lions or ant lions are doodle bugs and create those sand vortexes
-pill bugs are rollie pollies and where do they live?
I need to check out the links so I can get a visual of each to jog my memory.
This is part of the old poem that I remember:
“Doodlebug, doodlebug, Your house is on fire, your children will burn. Doodlebug, doodlebug, fly up this way.”
I don’t remember the rest you posted R3. I think I sang some kind of adaptation of those words. Thanks for posting the lyrics. Where did you find them? Or are they from memory?
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QM,
My memory isn’t that good. I did a Dogpile search on the song and found several versions. This was the closest to what I remembered. The phrase you used is similar to the chant we also used for releasing Lady Bugs.
rollie pollies – Here is a link with some good information http://insected.arizona.edu/isoinfo.htm
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R3, that’s a good link. I think I did have the doodlebug and pill bug confused. Wiki actually had some good photos of the ant lion. It looks so different in the different phases. The larva stage looks a little like a pill bug. But more ferocious. Doodlebugs (ant lions) are strange looking. There’s a photo of the way they burrow in the sand, too.
Doodlebug (ant lion) photos on Wiki (LINK)
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