There is an abundance of spiders in Georgia, which makes life outdoors a little unbearable for the skittish. This past summer, I have kept tabs on the spiders around the house, knowing that there are only two poisonous varieties here: the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse. Luckily, there have been zero sightings of those, but we do have a few very large and pretty spiders called the St. Andrew's Cross. Three of them have taken up residence on the back side of the house, two male and one female.
One of our males. When they are not moving, which is most of the time, these spiders get their name from the position they sit on their web and the actual "cross" they seem to form.
This female is at least 2 times the size of the males and her abdomen is about an inch by itself.
I typically don't kill bugs unless they're out to get me, so I have left these arachnids alone since Abbey doesn't like to play, or even walk, in the back yard yet. However, I noticed a large egg sack and decided I didn't want to let an already larger-than-wanted colony to grow. So, I waited until my friend Tracy could come over and hold Abbey while I tried to get the egg sack off the house and throw it into the bushes. Apparently, Abbey thought the focused/petrified look on my face was hilarious, and when she started laughing I couldn't help but take a video since I had the camera already in my back pocket from taking a few photos.
