Animalia – Life on the Farmlet

When we moved here there was grass, trees, and little else growing on our property. Over time we have carved gardens out of the grass, stopped using chemicals, and let a few areas go a bit to the wild side.

Why?

To make room for the little guys who keep the Farmlet bug and rodent free. Birds, snakes, spiders, and toads all do their job to help me keep the Farmlet a poison free zone.

I think it is working, because I have been seeing a lot of these guys around…

My little friend here is a Fowler’s Toad. It likes to burrow underground when it gets too cold in winter. Apparently, we now have quite a few of these here because we have many little toad holes this spring. I always wondered what came out of those holes.

Now your thoughts may differ, but I find him beautiful.

~*~

This week in the garden I found a Wolf Spider with her egg sack in tow…

The white round thing is the egg sack, but even so, she herself (legs included) was the size of a silver dollar. The bright silver bits in the lower right are the tines on my pitchfork. I left them in for size comparison.

Can’t see her? Oh, OK!

For a really close up view you can click the image and get as close as you like…

How’s that?

Personally, with the exception of Brown Recluse, I don’t mind spiders in my garden. They perform a beneficial service for me by ridding my plants of bad insects. She is obviously well fed living here in the compost pile. From the looks of her egg case, her babies will be hatching soon! Which means more hungry spiders to eat all those nasty flying Palmetto bugs hiding in there!

I have been partial to Wolf spiders since I was seven. Back then I was brave enough to touch that gigantic fluffy looking spider in the barn… Whereupon all her ‘fuzzy’ sprouted legs and went scurrying off her back! Lady Wolfspider will carry all her babies on her back for a while after hatching thus making herself look even more enormous as well as affording her progeny a bit of extra protection!