#ANYWAY HEY SORRY I RAMBLED ABOUT SPIDERS SO MUCH!! TL;DR YOU'RE COMPLETELY VALID AND I LOVE YOU

[blujayonthewing]

Most spiders are cool with me but wolf spiders freak me the hell out. Rescued one from my dad's pool years ago and the second I set it down on the ground all of its babies (which I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT) scattered. I know in theory they are harmless friends but in practice their presence makes me so uncomfortable. I still don't kill them though.

that's fair! the babies thing IS kind of alarming to see, especially if you're not ready for it ^^;; if it helps, spiderlings only stay with their mother for a couple of weeks and, during that time, only leave her if disturbed, so it's reasonably unlikely that any given individual will explode babies (I've only ever seen mother wolfs carrying babies a couple of times, myself). many wolf spiders also closely resemble members of several other families of spider, so it's also fairly likely that any given wolf spider is actually a male grass spider looking for a girlfriend! I know that doesn't necessarily tip the balance on a gut discomfort, though ^^;

wolf spiders are also completely unique in this kind of parental care, and extremely rare among spiders for doing any parental care at all! another family of spiders known for protecting and providing for their young after they're born are literally named for the behavior (the nursery-web spiders: they build a shelter for their young to live in, and watch over them until they disperse). both families are active hunters (they don't build webs) and also carry their eggs with them; wolf spiders drag the eggsac behind attached to the spinnerets, and nursery web spiders carry them SUPER awkwardly under their bellies for some reason?? the families are very visually similar (the most reliable way to tell them apart is by how their eyes are arranged) but some nursery spiders get FUCKIN, COLOSSAL, so if you've ever seen a wolf spider the size of a goddamn dinner plate it was probably actually a nursery web or fishing spider, lmao. ...this is all completely unrelated to your ask, btw, I'm just on a stream of consciousness spider tangent now cause I think they're neat 👉👈

#antique-symbolism-main #[grabbing myself by the throat to stop from Going On about fishing spiders in particular cause I love them so much] #I've only ever seen wolf babies scatter like that in videos online and like. man. I LIKE spiders but it IS pretty horrible to look at fgkjh #babies clinging onto mother is also imho pretty uncomfortable to look at (turns out I DO have a Too Many Legs creepiness threshold) #ALSO wolf spiders' eyes are reflective so shining a flashlight on a mama with babies is ALSO uhh a hell of a thing sdkjhfdk #ALL OF THAT BEING SAID!! it's super normal to be uncomfortable about ANY spiders! I know I'm an outlier to say the least haha #I don't expect people to like them! tbh I don't even expect people who are really scared of them not to kill them #but it is a little disappointing when getting rid of them another way is an option that people REFUSE to even entertain #like-- they're not pests in an actually harmful sense-- if they CAN be removed gently there's no downside to doing so :\ #uh but people who go out of their way to smash a spider when you already said 'don't kill it! I'll get it :)' are just dickheads :) #ANYWAY HEY SORRY I RAMBLED ABOUT SPIDERS SO MUCH!! TL;DR YOU'RE COMPLETELY VALID AND I LOVE YOU #and like-- if you're cool about most spiders you're already way cooler about spiders in general than a lot of people #and I'm blowing kisses at you for it #about me #spider #spiders