When the spiders leave, I'll dust again
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- February 13, 2020
- 942
Our house is not a fan of bugs; she will not even tolerate the odd fly.
When winter arrives, our house becomes almost paranoid. That is the season most bugs are looking for a warm, safe place to spend the winter. Our house is not a safe haven for bugs and has been able to communicate her aversion to creepy crawlies very effectively — that is until this winter. This has been the year of the spiders.
During summer we were aware millions of spiders lived right outside our place. That was just fine because they managed to devour any and all bugs that approached our premises. Our house was very appreciative and never objected to the eight-legged insects that made their homes at her foundation.
That is until late October when the weather turned colder and that spider population began to search for warmer winter quarters. Despite our house’s aversion, those creatures decided to make our house their winter refuge.
Though spiders can be useful creatures that keep the local bug population under control, they, as a species, can be secretly invasive, slipping inside without being noticed.
Once inside they find quiet, hidden spaces to weave their webs and make themselves at home. As long as they stay hidden, we, and our house, can coexist without problems. However, on dusting day those spiders are revealed and cause panic for both house and duster.
Just a few days ago, I pulled a curtain aside to remove dust from the window sill. There were three webs concealed behind that curtain with rather large, fierce-looking spiders inhabiting them.
They escaped my attempts to murder them by racing up the window to the ceiling where they ran off and disappeared. Our house shuddered, and I screamed.
My Taller Half ran in to save me but was too late to rid us of the spider threat. Besides, he likes spiders, seeing them as useful critters that eat bugs. He told me and our house we were overreacting and to make peace with our spider lodgers.
We just can’t; spiders give us both the willies! Perhaps I should just give up dusting until warm weather when the spiders move back outside.