along came a spider...
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
We have a lots of mosquitoes around the house. So when a monster spider set up a web, I was happy. But I wound up killing the thing that same day.
Here she is. Beautiful in her way, isn't she.
We were surprised when we saw this largish spider in a web stretching prominently across the balcony in front of our windows. It was right where we'd be if we stepped out the doors. I was happy because reckoned that the spider would kill some of the many mosquitoes around the balcony. We're "blessed" with tiger mosquitoes that hunt during the day, making themselves a nuisance both night and day and a real problem for Kenny who is tormented by the gaping wounds he makes by scratching too much.
When we came home from a trip during the day, we found the spider's web full of insects, all right. But they weren't nuisance mosquitoes. They were seven of the season's last honey bees. The spider had already insanguinated three of the things and was closing in on the fourth when I stepped out for a closer look. Deciding in my sleep-deprived state that the butchery of bees wasn't a positive thing for the state of the insect sphere in our neighbourhood I tried to intervene.
By the time I'd clumsily extracted the one still-struggling bee from the web, I'd sent the spider scurrying away. Fine. But it was heading for our laundry, clearly hoping to hole up in our clothes. More to the point, in Kenny's clothes.
So I killed it. My wife and mother-in-law had been watching the whole thing and didn't seem terribly impressed. My wife told me that killing a spider brings bad luck, here in Japan. Nuts, just what I need!
I went and had a nap and thought about what a disaster it had all been. I should have chased the spider away first thing in the morning. Insects; can't live with 'em... ah fuck 'em.