The spider on the carpet and other bug thoughts
Jun 11th, 2009 by Bethany
I just rescued myself and my children by stepping on a sneaky camouflaged spider skulking across the carpet. Gross. It was so color-coordinated that I now can’t find its carcass. Grosser. Degen asked me if I killed it, and I said yes, then he asked me if it went home, and I said yes. Then he asked if it was telling its mommy that it got killed. I didn’t know what to say. I said ”I don’t know about that.”
On the other hand, it occurred to me today that I still have never seen a firefly or other biolumenescent insect and I went online to look up where to find them. Apparently not often West of the Mississippi. I missed my chance while we were in Arkansas! Also, I found out that fireflies are carnivores, or at least omnivores. That’s okay with me, as I like ladybugs and they eat other bugs, but for some reason I think it’s a little more gross in a firefly. A lot of grossness in this post.
Speaking of bugs, one of my favorite bits of literature on the subject is a piece about spiders that exactly describes my feelings about spider webs. It’s in Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which I have read and re-read and I consider it a treasure in humorous reading. When I lived in my own place I kept it near my bed for reading when I had a bad day. Definitely recommended reading.
When we lived in connecticut there were fireflies, we saw them in the summer in the field behind a house where we were babysitting one time. the gross thing is ifyour driving and you get some firflies on your windshield, their guts glow for a while on your car too!
We get fireflies sometimes here in Nebraska, so they get a little west of the Mississippi. I had never seen them before we moved here, though. I’ve discovered that they look really neat from a distance, and they are super-ugly up close. Oh well, it’s to be expected from a bug, I guess. I didn’t know about the glowing corpse properties on windshields, though. That’s just gross…