Skip to main content

Invasion of the spiders

s. Bipunctata (Common False Widow)
s. Bipunctata (Common False Widow) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seeing a lot in the news about the recent sightings of False Widow spiders in England. Given that it is one of the few spiders in the UK whose bite can break the skin then perhaps the worry can be understood although I expect it will die down soon with the coming of winter. It's bite can release venom and neurotoxins but it seems the more serious risk is from bacterial infection.

A good time to repost about the other forgotten invader, the Segestria Florentina or Tube Web spider. A few years ago these were harbingers of the end of Western civilisation but the world keeps spinning.

Here's some pics of one of the critters I found in my back garden a few years ago. It's big, black and with a bright green marking which gives the appearance of 'fangs'. This one flipped over on it's back when I disturbed it showing a what seems to be a well armoured body. Found another the following year in some brickwork. Like the False Widow it's bite can puncture skin and people say it's like receiving a 'deep injection' that remains painful for a few hours.



Cecil Frances Alexander wrote about:
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
in the poem Maker of Heaven and Earth and God related creation in Genesis 1:20-22
20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

Perhaps a little less fruitful for some of creation Lord!

Authored by Chris Hall
Enhanced by Zemanta

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sound familiar?

Watching the BBC interview of Adele by Graham Norton tonight and Adele sang one of the new tracks off her forthcoming album. The track was called A Million Years Ago. Listening to it reminded me of a different song by someone else. You know where you almost recognise a tune but get lost with the words, yet it's the words which are the key! Eventually it came to me, El Shaddai by Michael Card, famously sung by Amy Grant. It's a song that I occasionally play during worship. Have a listen. What do you think?

The Upper Rooms

We often think of the 'upper room' as being the place where Jesus and the Disciples held the Last Supper but the Bible has many more 'upper rooms'.

The Archbishop and Wonga

Image via CrunchBase Have to say I was initially chuffed to see the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby laying down a challenge to Wonga and others of their ilk. The AoC communicated that he wanted to see the payday loan industry driven out of business by promoting the use of credit unions. The payday loan industry is involved in outright usury which is condemned by many faiths such as Islam and Christianity and others. Usury we can look upon as the lending of money at exorbitant rates of interest. But then I thought what was the AoC actually saying? He wanted to replace excessive usury with not so excessive usury. Is that what we should be aiming for? Plus the architects of our current austerity are backing the AoC! I would love to see all of the credit industry driven out of business but it will only be done by paying workers a decent wage, sharing in the profit of their labour and making capitalism history. At the end of the day this sort of initiative is just a...