Wild Insect Kindgom at our house

We have had a crazy rainy summer and it has turned our house into a Wild Insect Kingdom.


The other night Mom and Dad were playing on the Wii (Lego Harry Potter) when they noticed this giant moth. At first Mom questioned if it was a bat, but no, it was a moth.


For the most part we ignored it, but Maggie did give it a passing glance. The thing is as big as her head!


Every year our beautiful yellow writing spider returns. He is usually in the shrubs, but this year he decided to make camp on the cafe table in the front porch. Look at that amazing web!


He really is something to behold.


Part of me wants to "play" with him, but I'm afraid it would end poorly.


Of course, this isn't an insect, but we had a lizard visitor the other day, too. He stayed away from the garage so we didn't get to hunt him.

But Josie did get to catch a roach in the house the other day. (Just reality of living in South Carolina. Rarely happens to up, but it happens.) But Dad was quick and made her give it to him before she could eat it. She did get a bunch of treats for being an excellent huntress, though.

Friendly neighborhood spider

This is our very intimidating-looking, but very friendly bug-eating spider. It hangs out (literally) in the shrubs near our front porch. So long as it stays right where it is and continues to eat bugs we're all OK. But as soon as it tries to come inside all bets are off.

We didn't get a picture of the other one, but we have a very adventurous spider who makes big big webs all around the yard. The other night he had made one that stretched from a tree to a bush about 20 feet away, spinning a web across the driveway. Dad saw the spider in mid-air, creating the one strand of web. He has no idea how the first strand came to be because it just seems like an impossible web to create. But he did it. Then the other night he had a web build right in the walkway going up to the front porch. Dad was bringing some house guests in and stopped inches from walking right into the spider itself. He politely moved the web like opening a door. Like I said before, as long as they are eating the bugs, we're OK with these spiders. This one isn't as pretty as the one pictured, but it works hard to keep the bugs in check.