hmmm... what is that exactly

last week larry's dad stopped in overnight on his way to utah. after the initial frenzy of his arrival we settled in to visit. he asked me if we had problems with spiders in the house. being the arachnophob that i am i told him all about our spider "issues". we really don't have a ton of them but for me one is way too many. they creep me out so bad. whenever i have to dispose of one i am always worried that they are somehow going to jump through the air and land on me. and of course they will be of a poisonous variety. it's completely ridiculous i know but i just can't seem to conquer my fear. after i tell him that we do infact have spiders around he goes out to his truck and comes back in with these.

i was speechless honestly. i have never seen anything quite like them and had no clue what i was supposed to do with them. i wasn't sure if they were a decoration of some kind or some bizarre fruit that i had never encountered. my lack of response and bewildered expression gave me away and he seemed surprised that i didn't know what they were. these unique things are osage oranges that grow in the midwest and they are supposed to keep the spiders away. i am not sure how i lived in the midwest for 20 some years and didn't acquire this information. i called my mom to ask her about them and she told me that she uses them all the time. again i'm thinking "why don't i know about this??" so the jist is you place these things on plastic lids around your house and they act as a natural pesticide and keep the spiders away. since they entered my house i have not seen a single spider! it's amazing! and he brought them at just the right time. over the last few weeks three of my friends have found black widows in their house and it has really been freaking me out! between my kids and the daycare kids i've been terrified that someone is going to get bite and that i won't be able to figure out what's wrong until it's too late yadda yadda yadda.......
they are so weird looking though aren't they??