Well, not sure if you know, but we are total animal lovers and believe in leaving insects that are good for the garden , in the garden. I just don't like to kill anything unless it's coming after me or harmful to my plants. I know that we have a line of black widow spider nests underneath a row of stones by one of my beds, so I avoid that stone 'wall'.
The regular Orb Weaver ( that big yellow and black garden spider ?). We actually counted, which means we probably missed some, 82 big females on webs in my gardens this year. We called the Local University ,and the Zoo , which was having a year of a big bug display. NObody wanted any of them. So I left them there, but more than once , forgot and while weeding would come face to face with a big momma. Even way above my front door, one layed three giant egg sacs. I thought they only layed one ? But it was on Halloween that we noticed the last girl die. It was actually kind of sad after watching them all year. I have a picture, I'll see if I can post it. We had this fake pumpkin lit up, that looked creepy enough, and the spider came down her web one last time then died on that pumpkin.
Now...I have at LEAST 82 big egg sacs in my garden. We've been going around snipping them off the twigs they are on, and have put them in a big outdoor container. I just don't want to think of how many baby spider X's 82 ( sacs), that we'll have .

well last year fair time in our tiny town, it was the week befor, and clean up time, so i'm out by the electric lines, pulling the weeds/tall grass. i liked to garden w/o gloves. so i was pulling the tall grass at this moment, and i felt some huge fangs of steel go into my finger, i look down and its a huge scare the he** out of you brown spider, not knowing my spiders, i ask my hubby what it is, he don't know so we ask my neighbor, he thinks it sa wolf spider, my hand swolled up, the ONLY thing i can think of to do is douse it with vinegar and tape a gauze pad full of vinegar to it, the darn thing went down in a matter of 5 min. and it just had the fang marks there. that was my bug/insect story. LOL YUCK!!! LOL i don't kill them only mice, mostly cuz they are very gross and they leave droppings everywhere, talla is highly allergic to them for some reason. so i put up all kinds of things to keep them away, like lavender and mints and stuff but on the off chance they do come in, i have one kinda poison i use now. since i've used the other stuff to keep them away i've not had to worry. she's not sneezed. YAY!!!! :'))

Smokeymist, you'll probably be ok. We had a summer a few back where we had lots of "Charlottes" in our garden. Evidently, their babies moved elsewhere when the eggs hatched. We've not had a summer like that one since. I kinda miss them.

I can finally reply to this! :) My 'n' and 'b' keys were broken and it was impossible to post anything! :O....lol...

OK,I have had these creepy little beetles borrow out of Hardy Hibiscus and Mallow seeds a couple days after receiving them. They cut out a perfect circle and climb out of the seed! The first time I noticed them it was the Mallow,I put those seeds in the freezer for a few days and thought for sure they would be dead! Well,after an hour or two of room temps they started moving around again! So I put them back in the freezer,after squishing the live ones,and left them there for a couple weeks. After this I didnt see anymore in with the Mallow,but only had a few usable seeds left after this. Then when the first Hardy Hibiscus came that had them, I knew to leave them in the freezer for a couple weeks instead of days and it worked! :)

I received about 3 or 4 trades of Hardy Hibiscus with these bugs,it seems they like the malvacea family! They are creepy and I dont like them! I do not have a problem with most bugs,very few really give me the creeps,but these ones for some reason make my skin crawl! So if you trade for these types of seeds,watch out for them,I can only imagine when they were done with the seeds in that pack, they would move on to the next and before long destroy many seeds! If you see a little round disc and a nice round hole in any of your seeds,stick them in the freezer!

ohhh my my loquat seeds have all these holes in them. i'm soooo unhappy about this only one sank. the rest floated. but i planted all of them anyhows!! we all know what happend to my castor beans when they all floated!! they all grew anyhow!! LOL in the middle of winter. so i no longer follow that rule!! LOL :'))

This past year, I saved seeds from my miniature Hollyhock, lots of them!, so I had the seed heads in a small lunch bag size paper bag. Imagine my horror a few weeks later when I go to take the seeds out and there are tons of bugs having a party in the bag!
I didn't know about the Hollyhock weevil! I had to put the bag in freezer to kill them.(So Sue, yes putting them in the freezer does solve the problem.) Then I had to go through all the seeds removing the bad ones. That took forever!
Remy

Here is a link that might be useful: Hollyhock Weevil Pic

I love spiders and never kill them, even when they decide to come inside. I really don't kill anything to speak of and use beneficial insects for pest control. The only seed that I have a bug problem with is the hardy hibiscus. The seeds can look perfect and unblemished when collected but it never fails. Sometime after they've dried and been packed I'll find a perfect circular hole in the seed and a tiny weevil looking bug crawling around. I always keep them for a few weeks before I'll send them out for trades. I'd hate to send someone a package of weevils. lol
Karyn

I hope none of those hibiscus bugs came from me? I apoligize if they were, they were in the house a pretty long time....

I hit submit to fast. I once picked a thing off of a rose bush, the rosehip had a big "thing" attached to it and I had no idea what it was. Anyway, I busted the "thing" open and it was full of "larvae?" or "caterpillars?" or"grubs?" or just plain old creepy crawlies, they were sleeping"hibernating?", luckily and I just threw the hole thing out and ran away.

The "thing" was almost like that spray foam you use to fill in cracks and then it dries up and seals them. I wonder what they were, but, I was too creeped out to save it to ask anybody.

Doris these are seeds that I collect from my own hibiscus.
Karyn

Doris the Hibiscus you sent me is fine,no creepy crawlies...lol...

Doris, that foamy thing could have been a praying mantis egg case. I destroyed one before looking it up and felt bad afterward!
Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: egg case

Would there be more than one mantis in an egg case? There were a good half a dozen creepy crawly buggy things in this one. Im googling, I dont want it to be praying mantis sextuplets cuz....... well you know.

Ewwww...I was barehandedly pulling leaves back from a hibiscus, looking for some life in it, and I grabbed ahold of Mr Lizard. I know they are harmless, and I would never harm one, but they really creep me out...that and toads if I accidentally grab one of those.

Woohoo! I found a praying Mantis egg case yesterday. I'm thinking I will relocate it out in the veggie garden somewhere where it won't get damaged.

A search says there are between 100-400 in each case. They sure are cute little critters.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Praying Mantis

A few years ago I was lucky enough to notice an egg case just as young mantids were leaving it :-)
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Wow! Is that cool or what? Great picture! :)

Awwww... I love the pic of the baby praying mantids. I have only been lucky enough to see a few hatch from an egg sack once.

That's funny that you name your garden spiders "Charlotte". In our yard we call the huge ones "Shelobs" from the JRR Tolkiens Hobbit story. LOL!!!!

))i(( Jennifer

Not a seed/bug story but this is kind of funny. My grandfather had a large farm and one time out in the woods picking blackberries, I came face to face with one of those HUGE yellow and black orb weaver spiders. I *never* saw it until my face hit the web and I started screaming to get it off my head. Everyone back at the house said they could hear me screaming but mom said she could tell the difference between a "spider scream" and a "getting-murdered-in-the-woods-by-an-axe-murderer" scream or a "getting-attacked-and-eaten-by-a-wild-animal" scream so nobody was too worried. LOL!!

LOL...that is terrible that they knew you were getting mauled by a spider and didnt run to your rescue...lol..I know what your Mom means I can tell the difference in my kids screams too! :)

hmmm...that is interesting that your Mom knew the difference.

I 'think' all of my Spider, snake, and chipmunk up the pants leg screams sound the same...at least they do to me and probably the neighbors (who are up wind and not very close)

lol...Sue,it is just like when a dog barks, the owner usually knows ,if it is another animal,a person,potty time or just for the heck of it...lol!