by Jon Coe

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: October 14, 2010

A few years ago, I decided to thin out my Azalea bushes that sit in front of my house.

Some foreign shrub was trying to get a hold right in the center of the Azalea so I had to go in deep. As I snipped away, my wife and children were weeding adjacent to me in the little flower patch.

Suddenly I froze completely. At the very center of the Azalea bush, was a white spider web and in the middle, was a huge, green spider, about three inches in size, with a black stripe down the middle of its back, and, it was moving. I pulled out quickly and looked at my family, horrified.

My youngest daughter looked at me, as I pointed to the shrub. "A big green Spider" I said. She looked apprehensively at the Azalea and started to look for herself. She then pulled out quickly. Then my eldest daughter looked, she jumped back and ran into house to look it up on the Internet. Meanwhile, my wife looked in horror and went inside the house as well.

My eldest daughter was able to identify the spider as being somewhat poisonous and we pondered our next move.

We eventually decided to go back out side and face the creature, armed with a broom stick. We argued for a few seconds about who was going in and eventually it was decided that it should be me.

A breeze was blowing, this made it little creepier, as the shrub moved a little. Regardless, I had a mission, so I went in and poked the thing.

Suddenly a realization swept through me. White spider web? I thought. Then I poked the thing again, but it did nothing but hang there in the breeze.

I came out and asked my oldest daughter her opinion. She looked, then we both realized that it was not a real spider at all, it was a rubber one that must have fallen in the bush during one of our Halloween parties.

It did look real for a while. We have encountered weird spiders in our yard before this.

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