SHARING THE CREEPY CRAWLIES

Yesterday morning, I settled at the kitchen table, a mug of hot coffee in hand, and began to read the Sunday morning paper. This is one of my favorite things to do every week. The sun was shining nicely in the window; the squirrels were playing on the deck; Sophie, my cat, had claimed a warm patch of sun on the floor to snooze in. All was wonderful, until I turned to page two of the newspaper. There I found a substantial story of a massive spider web in Willspoint, Texas - complete with photo.

The article said there was a "vast web crawling with millions of spiders that is spreading across several acres of a North Texas park. Sheets of web ...thick enough in places to block out the sun." As if that description wasn't enough to give the reader the willies, the article supplied even more detail, such as a "fetid odor, perhaps from the dead insects entwined in the silk" and that the "web whines with the sound of countless mosquitoes and flies trapped in its folds."

EEEEWWWWWW!!!

The web has confounded scientists, who say they have never seen a web of this size outside of the tropics, and even then, something that big would normally take years to build, but this was formed within only a few months. Record breaking rains that have flooded Texas this summer have produced outbreaks of crickets and caterpillars, so they think the rains, MIGHT have something to do with the web, but that is just a guess. They plan on letting the web spread and think it will last until colder weather, when the spiders will die off.

If there was ever a situation that called for DDT, this is it!!! Quick! Someone call Al Gore and find out if this is related to global warming! Believe me, having the threat of being consumed by zillions of spiders would go a long way towards motivating people (ME, in particular) to "go green".

I hate spiders. I know they serve some purpose, but now they seem to have an agenda. World domination, starting in Texas.

And, a special request to Richmond Times Dispatch....please put articles like these on the back of the sports page. I never read that.

Is that too much to ask?