It was a hot summer's day, and I spent most of it outside doing yard work. So, when I had finished for the day and came inside, I decided to have a shower to cool off and get clean. And it wasnSA国际影视传媒檛 even Bath Day.
Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the old Canadian Custom of Bath Day, it went like this: once a week, you had a bath or shower, and it was usually on Saturday or Sunday night. That way, you would be clean for the coming week, whether it was for school or work. When kids asked why you only had a full bath or shower only once a week, it was because of the cost. The government likes to charge and tax everything.
Water costs money and was taxed and so was heat. So hot water cost even more and, of course, the government charged and taxed you for using their sewage system to get rid of the bath water. People had gone through the Great Depression and the Second World War and were very frugal, so Bath Day once a week helped keep the costs down.
We had a combination tub and shower, so I turned the water on so it would get to the right temperature and then shed my clothes and climbed in. I happened to look down and discovered there was a small spider in the tub. It was hanging on to the side of the tub, out of the water.
I could have leaped out of the tub screaming "SPIDER," but that seemed overreactive. It was a small spider and not out to try and harm me. Most spiders are benign and harmless. Also comparing my bulk, I probably outweighed it by a million per cent. So, I just decided to let it be. I donSA国际影视传媒檛 mind most spiders because they are a part of the planetSA国际影视传媒檚 ecosystem and do some pretty amazing things.
Spiders have eight jointed legs and are arthropods SA国际影视传媒� most specifically arachnids. They breathe air and most can produce silk to make webs for getting around. They are everywhere and while you may not see them, chances are you are only a few metres away from one or more.
I came across a website that listed 10 common house spiders. They didnSA国际影视传媒檛 bother counting the uncommon ones. And yes, there are several species of spiders that live in houses or buildings, which means you must clean up spider webs in your abode. Every spring, when the sunlight returns, most people find a few spider webs in their residence.
Apparently, there are more than 50,000 known species of spiders, and probably two or three times that many yet to be discovered. Spiders just donSA国际影视传媒檛 get the attention they deserve. Like most critters, when you read up on them, you will find them much more interesting and diverse.
Some spiders build webs to catch flies and other insects. Some even build traps. Others use silk to float in the air. The mother spider goes to the top of a tree with an egg sack. When the eggs hatch, the baby spiders let out a strand of silk. The breeze lifts the silk and spiders up and they can float for kilometres. It is a way of spreading the spiders to new areas.
One year, I was doing a geophysical survey out on the lake ice and was a good kilometre or two from shore. After taking a reading, I noticed a little spider floating by on its silken thread. I looked around and saw several of them floating by. As I travelled closer to shore, I saw more and more of them and then spotted a tree on shore that was covered in strands of silk and baby spiders. It was their springtime hatching site or nursery.
One often sees people out bird watching, but you donSA国际影视传媒檛 often see people out spider watching. The more you learn about them, the more complex and fascinating they become. If you look closely at the trees and the bush, you will see a whole lot of spider webs and masses collecting the seeds from dandelions. All are a part of the wonderful world of nature.
