Aint she a cutie? Next to the Banshee from "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," this was the next most popular guest star in my childhood nightmares. The difference is, I still have them starring this little gal from time to time.
I understand she is supposed to be harmless, but tell that to a six year old who just ran his bicycle through her web and had her crawl up his face and into his hair while he was trying to come to a controlled crash. Yeah, she didn't look so harmless then. Maybe it was karma for feeding all those grasshoppers to the spiders that hung around my childhood farm. Lets just say, the spiders at my farm were well fed and enormous.
One of these days I intend to feature this spider in a story, one way or another. While tarantulas get all the love from Hollywood, it's time somebody comes up with a way to help the orb weavers get equal time. She would also make an eye catching book cover, although it might discourage people from actually picking the book up...which sort of defeats the purpose of writing it in the first place.
Ah well, if I ever make an anthology of my short stories, she is who I want on my book cover. I'll definitely have to have one short story feature her, just to justify that. It will be an interesting challenge, since garden spiders seldom leave their webs. They prefer to let food come to them, not exactly making them the most active of potential villains for a horror story. Perhaps a little creative license with their behavior...then I can make her a star.
Then maybe she will finally join the Banshee as just a childhood nightmare.
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