Scary Spider

I'm sort of a spider freak.  I know a little too much about them.  Call it arachnophobia or whatever, but I study them - I always have.  Since I've had kids, I get even more paranoid about the types I find around outside and in the basement.  Well for a while, there has been consistent spider webs on the boys' play structure in the backyard.  I have always torn them down (though I could never find the spider) and told them not to touch spider webs.  Most are harmless, but there is one spider, the black widow, that is very aggressive when her web is touched and her venom is more potent than rattlesnakes.  She can kill the elderly and  small children with a bite.  I have seen one black widow since we moved here - she lived in a hole in our front yard where the For Sale sign had been.  We had them in Atlanta too, though I never saw one around our house.  

Anyway, I walk into the back yard where the boys had gone after being out front.  To my horror, Jordan was tearing a spider web down with his bare hand under their ladder to the fort.  That's where I always tear down the webs (not with my hand!) but can't find the spider.  I told him to stop and went to check it out.  He knows not to touch a web!!!  I saw the spider up in a dark corner hidden by more web and two egg sacs.  So I went to get the spider spray, just thinking it was a big brown spider.  I sprayed up in the web and then went around to other corners and sprayed the webs and other kinds of spiders.  I looked over and saw the spider come out of the corner to the side of the play structure.  My heart started pounding and I freaked (on the inside) when I realized it was a black widow about an inch long.  I have never seen one this large.  I sprayed her a few more times and decided to get the boys inside.  I went back out to take this picture...she's dead just hanging there on her web.  I have to have proof or Tony thinks I over react to spiders.  See her red hour glass?  That's a black widow.  If you ever see one, don't touch her web and spray her down with spider spray.  They are aggressive and dangerous and I thank Jesus that she didn't get to Jordan while he was trying to tear down her web with his hand.  They are known for protecting their webs!!!