Let me just say this...Little Miss Muffet got all the notoriety, but out here at our place, we got the spiders.

Now, first, it's NOT an infestation. But it's a daily occurrence that a wolf spider runs across the living room floor or the bathroom floor or down the hallway.

And, yes, I know wolf spiders are not rare spiders--quite the contrary. I've seen plenty in my lifetime. But I'm really seeing a lot of them out here--more than I have before, in any given period of time--and I just wondered if there's a reason. Maybe it's summer. Maybe it's because we're out in the country now. Who knows?

I just know I wouldn't be writing about it if I were seeing what I would call the normal number of wolf spiders.

Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
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That little guy right there just ran across my carpet as I was doing this, as if on cue. Maybe those eight eyes (yes, they have eight of them--to match their legs, I guess) also make them a little psychic.

Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
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I took that picture a couple of months ago and found out it's a SPOTTED wolf spider. So we have separate species of wolf spiders. Maybe it's a convention. No, never mind, actually, that doesn't sound optimal when I think that through.

Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
Dave Spencer/Townsquare Media
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I thought I'd throw him in since he put on a show for me the other night when I was washing dishes. That's a dimorphic jumping spider, and he was on the wall above the window over the sink. I put a hot skillet under cold water and the heavy steam rose pretty quickly and disturbed him enough that he jumped down onto the cabinet, then the drain, and then who knows where. I lost sight of him. Like the more common (around my living room, anyway) wolf spider, he's harmless to us humans and actually would rather get AWAY from us, from what I've learned about his species.

Also like the wolf spider, the dimorphic jumping spider (can we just call him DJ, because, man...) does not spin a web. It captures prey with silk that it spins. No webs though.

And, see, it's recommended that wolf spiders be left to roam free because they eat pests and are harmless to humans. But they're not going to be getting the flying insects (you know, the peskier ones) if they're ground hunters.

Oh well, I guess we'll have to be content with 2021 being the summer of the wolf spider, except I can't think of too many people who put "content" and "spider" in the same sentence.

Ope, I did it again.

Snakes in Kentucky

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