the natural way with spiders

To continue yesterday's theme--I did some spring cleaning (even though it's officially summer) and part of my herculean effort was to wash off the siding on my house. My house is white, but it was beginning to look a little beige after a winter of rain and a spring full of windy days and dust, so I decided to take the hose and spray it clean again. (I was also looking for a reason to get wet on a warm day.) I've been letting spiders take over my house for the last several weeks and they have been more than happy to put their webs (and captured prey) everywhere--in every niche, corner, nook, overhang, etc. But today, I bid them all farewell, apologized and turned the hose on the house. My house looks white again and spiffy clean! No longer does it sport drapes of silken threads!! But I fear that I will be paying a big price for this "good riddance" to spidey webs. I thought that maybe the spiders would enjoy a refreshing shower and an opportunity to build an even better web, and that I was actually helping them, giving them an opportunity to improve themselves--hopefully someplace other than on my house.

Tonight I will sleep with my mouth closed, even if that requires epoxy lipstick, in order to avoid swallowing more than my share of spiders--six a year is more than enough, thank you! I have decided that revenge of the spideys might be the order of the day (or night) and so I am also not taking a shower tonight, hoping that the oh-so-pungent odor I have worked up with all the yardwork I did today might keep those eight-legged critters at bay. At least it will make them a little dizzy or faint and perhaps they'll decide that crawling on me, running through my three hairs or playing hopscotch on my forehead isn't worth the odoriferousness of me and I'll be given a reprieve...until the next time I inadvertently walk through a web.