Along came the spider...

I was reminded of the expression 'we are no better or worse than anyone else' as I watched a spider kill a wasp today. First the spider ensnared the much maligned wasp so cruelly despised in the British summer months. Once trapped in the deceptively powerful filaments that constitute a spider's web, the wasp flapped about helplessly. Along came the spider, casually striding over. The spider sized up his lunch and decided to wait a little longer. The wasp was becoming more tired and his imprisonment meant that any resistance would be futile. The spider saddled over to the wasp and began to strike him with his legs. The wasp's sting emerged but it could be that I saw correctly? The spider continued to hit the wasp and the wasp impaled himself with his own sting. Perhaps that is the romantic in me who thought that the wasp committed a type of harakiri but I shall never know. After the wasp's body had turned limp, the spider dragged him off and stored him in a separate web. All of this took place in my kitchen as I was cooking a beef stew.

Do remember therefore that there will always be those more powerful and cunning than us. Choose your enemies wisely.

Photo copyright SvD.

PS The spider has every right to inhabit my kitchen and so I have left him be along with the various corpses in his pantry.