Daily Create
Prompt: #clmooc #DS106 @ds106dc #tdc3921 Oscar II – a ship– what happened to Oscar 1
Oscar I is still around at our place. Oscar II was named after the stealth stalker and enemy decimator I welcome in my window…the jumping spiders, each of which we call, “Oscar.” They live outside and inside our window and keep all those flying aphids, gnats, wasps, flies, mosquitoes, etc. away. Read more about the spiders and the poem on my education blog: Spiders: Friend or Foe and a family story [below and on my blog here: Day 377 Bold One].
![Jumping spider with poem [see below in post]](https://sheri42net.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/p22oscar_spider.jpg?w=1024)
Spiders
So many fears of this strange looking creature of so many different colors, shapes and sizes, but most always with eight legs and those strange eyes. Little Miss Muffet told us how to behave, and that thin, spinning, shining silk steadying that falling spider in front of your face does elicit a scream, for sure.
Also around us are wasps and gnats and mosquitoes and other unfriendly creatures we swat at and frantically brush away. However, with just one jumping spider in the window— or outside—all of these creatures become ensnared in the sticky web carefully spun by the friendly spider minding his or her own business while cleaning up all the other pests for us.
Call him Oscar.
Oscar
Run across the sill
Sheri Edwards
spinning silk just so, spider’s
catch keeps pests away.
041022 101.365.22
Poetry/Photography
The bold jumping spider, Phidippus audax, whom we always name “Oscar,” can get quite large, about a 1/2 inch body and their furriness makes them look scary. They often live in our living room window and spend their lives catching the ugly bugs that find their way into our homes: flies, bees, wasps. Those uglies always fly to the light of the window, where “Oscar” gives them their due and eats them for dinner.
They are harmless to humans– although, should they feel threatened and bite you, it would really sting. So, since they are one of the most helpful of spiders for their voracious appetite on bugs that could harm us, we let the ones that find their way to our window stay as our pet, Oscar.
Once, long ago, my son visited and I had just begun to tell him about our new pet when he jumped up quickly yelling, “Oh my god,” grabbing a newspaper, and swatted our new pet. “You had a huge spider in your window!”
It was shocking to us and it happened so fast. Had he been looking at me instead of enjoying the light from the window, that Oscar would have survived. This is now the family story: Greg kills our pet spider just as I was introducing him to it. I still feel badly. [from blog post of family story and video here.]
Bold One
Leaning back, crouching
Sheri Edwards
down, the bold one patiently
waits to pounce on prey.
Phidippus audax
Bold Jumping Spider
Our Nickname: Oscar
032521 08436521
Poetry / Photography
I wonder, if I draw a line... 