So the first big events started when my neighbor came over to tell me the black widow we found at her house the other day was outside again last night...and another neighbor of ours (who did not believe us when we told him how big it was) saw it and sprayed it down with hair spray (I just want to know why they didn't torch it). We found it last week and I burned the web, sprayed into her hole with a cleaning solution containing bleach and just wrecked her home...
Well coming to tell me, she did some searching around my place and found one in my bricks, so i got out the bleach spray, some long matches and went to work. I managed to destroy the egg sack and infuriate the spider. I finally ended up filling her hole with sand (she'll prob be back tomorrow, and very angry). I actually ended up destroying three different nest, provoking 3 or 4 different black widows and killing one...and do i feel guilty about this?...only slightly. I am usually the person who tries to teach the kids not to be afraid of bugs, but spiders that can kill my neighbors two children do not make it to "live and let live" list.
Here are some picks she took of one of the spiders (before I smashed it with a pole while it was hiding in its hole)
The next event of the day happened after enjoying a relaxing night with some friends at a bonfire. I am driving down the road @ 11:30 or quarter til 12 and see these two kids walking, no hitch-hiking down the street (6th and 7th grade). I drove past, but immediately turned around after praying and feeling God tell me to stop. I go back and ask where they are going and someone comes up behind me and someone is coming toward me at the same time, so I had to go past a little for the car behind to get around and to turn around. I see the car coming toward me stop to talk with the boys and can tell they say I am going to give them a ride.
I took them to one of the boys houses all the while trying to pump for information. I don't think they were lying to me about where they were coming from or going, but do not believe they were entirely forthcoming either. They told one boys sister to tell his parents they were going for a walk and just decided to go all they way to the other guy's house.
The road they were going to have to walk on was not a short distance that time of night, nor safe to walk on ever. The hills and curves alone would have been enough to cause an accident, but add the darkness and craziness of nighttime drivers....
My social worker/behavior specialist concerns are this...why were they out?
~Did the parents know, why would they let them walk that time of night
~If the parents at the house I dropped them off at were drunk as they say, should I have taken them there
~Where were their shoes (it wasn't a short walk in a subdivision)
~was the other car that stopped just a nice passerby like myself or not
All being said, I have no doubt I did the right thing. They were going to that house regardless; better go by me than get hit by an unsuspecting car flying around a curve in the middle of the night...and yes, i gave them the riot act for being out late and for hitch-hiking.
My prayers go out on their behalf...and for their families...something was off, but that is just a feeling i have, not because of anything said (oh, and the fact they were out so late)
don't worry, i don't usually pick up hitch hikers...I was definitely prompted
Black widows are insanely hard to kill. Andy caught one and put it in a mason jar last year and it lived, with no food or water, for WEEKS. I am all for smashing them... I just don't get close enough to them to do that!
ReplyDeleteBe careful with the hitchers, of course, but it sounds like you were right to do what you did.
You can't leave kids out alone at night on a dark street. Scary - even more scary then a black widow.