Spiders and Scorpions and Snakes, Oh My!

Spiders: Black widows give me the creeps! While I don't especially *like* any spiders, I can live in peace with the varieties that populate my gardens. I appreciate it when the black and yellow garden spiders, the ones with the really big orb webs, bounce as I approach their lair. It makes it easy to see them and stay out of their way. But I really don't like the black widows that hide in secret places. Country life has taught me to never reach into a dark space without first shining a light into it and brushing it out first. I also carry a can of spider kill spray. I don't do squish.

Scorpions:

M: "Ow, ow, ow! (lots of jumping and grabbing foot) Am I gonna die? Oh, my foot, my foot! It hurts, it hurts! Am I gonna die?:

Me: "What happened? Are you okay?"

M: "I stepped on a scorpion. Oh, my foot! Am I gonna die?!!!"

Me: "Yes, you're gonna die"....but not from this!

My city-raised girl will not go barefoot in the house anymore.

Snakes: I looked out the door onto my back porch one day while doing laundry, and resting on the cool concrete near my potted plants was a copperhead. Mouth open, waiting for his prey (the fat toad hiding behind another pot), he waited. I, on the other hand, gave my dogs a withering look and rolled my eyes at them as they lay nonchalantly nearby. Walking to the garage, I grabbed a shovel and crept slowly back to the plants. *Whack* The snake wriggled and squirmed but could not strike as I proceeded to chop its head off. Now, I throw like a girl, even with a tool in hand. Picking up the dead snake with the shovel, I carried it to the woods so the dogs wouldn't try to eat it (or act all brave now that it was dead...). My toss managed to land the snake in a tree, hanging from a branch. Oh, well - I was not going in after it. I showed it to my husband when he got home and he laughed, saying it would serve as a warning to all the other snakes. We haven't seen any since!