SPIDERS!!

[capnhowdy]

Spiders are just like snakes. In the wild, they're fine. In the house, they are dead.

[WabUfvot5]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Huh. I never heard them called hedgeballs. Makes sense, though.

Damn, Osage repels spiders, too? Man, that's a vicious plant.

Could be a regional term. I've read it's a myth - that the fruit don't actually repel spiders since spiders can't detect odors. My guess is that the fruits repel enough insects that the spider leaves for a place with better food availibility.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Jebediah

It is said hedgeballs (Osage Orange) repel spiders. I tried with one and had none in that corner of the room, but that may have been coincidence. They grow in more southerly climes... occasionally you can find them in grocery stores too.

We have a number of them around here. Not landscaping, along the edge of the road. We always called them Monkey balls, but it's Osage Orange for sure.

[bbro]

Here's a picture of one of them. It was the best I could get with my cell phone. Ew

[xoxoxoBruce]

LOOK OUT!! HE'S GOT A GUN!!

[morethanpretty]

These are my favorite kind. They live all around my house in TX...although there has been less in the past couple of yrs :-( I think its the drought

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.ed....JPG/view.html

[bbro]

I don't think those are the same kind, they do not have any yellow on their backs. The legs are also different, there are alternating bands of red and black, not like the one in the picture.

Nice Bruce Made me laugh out loud.....now I have to go check for spider WMDs!

[maninthebox]

What's really freaky is when you see a spider on your leg when your driving. That happened to me yesterday. It was a small one though, but startling. Not as bad though when you see a spider in your mailbox that looks like a black widow!

[Trilby]

When I was a lass I got into a car accident (rather bad one) due to a spider coming in thru the sunroof. I was in a VW bug and we hit a Caddy head-on. And, no, I wasn't the driver.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by bbro

I don't think those are the same kind, they do not have any yellow on their backs. The legs are also different, there are alternating bands of red and black, not like the one in the picture.

sorry i shouldv'e done the link and then the text. I was just showing my favorite kinda spider, called garden or zipper spider around here. I don't think I've ever seen those red&blacks around here. They seem neat though.

[Hoof Hearted]

Originally Posted by Brianna

When I was a lass I got into a car accident (rather bad one) due to a spider coming in thru the sunroof.

I've worked for two Sheriff Offices as a secretary, and the common school of thought for single car accidents with no known cause...are insects. Bugs and spiders freak the driver out, driver loses control, crashes and dies...and the bug or spider is either unnoticed in the wreckage, or flies/crawls away...

We have Black/Yellow/White striped spiders here, called Zipper Spiders (garden spider) and they make an orb web with a sticky, thick, white "zipper" of web material in the center. I name them all "Charlotte", as long as they are outside. Any spider inside must die.
Hubby is called for the massacre, I am unable to do it. They move too fast, are unpredictable and what if it falls on me when I reach up with the wand?

I think yours is what I would call an "Orb Spider", making an orb web and having thick legs with alternating bands of color with a large body. They vary in color from light to dark. We had them in California in the late summer, early fall and I would NOT exit the house after dusk. They would hide during the heat of the day and make their webs in the early evening around the house, letting the lights attract their dinners.

I am an arachnophobe.

[Elspode]

We've got ludicrous quantities of Osage Orange around these parts. Also called Bodark (from the French term "Bois de Arc", meaning "the tree what the injuns made their bows outta"), these trees were planted in endless long, straight lines around the perimeters of homesteads and cultivated fields as windbreaks way back when. Ever since I was a kid, we called the nasty green sticky things that they produce "hedgeapples".

The only certifiable use I ever found or heard of for them was as projectiles in treehouse wars. Whoever finds something truly useful to do with those things will rule the world.

Hedge burns extraordinarily hot and clean, making it a highly desireable wood stove/fireplace fuel here in the Midwest.

[bbro]

I vaguely remember being pelted with them when I was young by my brothers.

HH - These ones are active during the day. I don't know why they like the back door. I never turn the light on out there. One of them did start to do a zipper thing in the middle. I wonder if it is a spider couple. Oh, god, could you imagine spider babies all over my glass door???? *shiver*

[Happy Monkey]

It's very pretty wood as well, but seldom straight enough for lumber.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yeah they tend to grow twisty. When planted in hedgerows, they tend to weave together into an impenetrable fence.

Hoof, i think it was a zipper the praying mantis munched in IOtD.