Unlike my children, I have no problems with bugs - if they're outside, I'm in their space, if they're inside, their in mine. In the first case, I swat to get away, in the second I seek and destroy.

Spiders, on the other hand, are another issue. When I can, I escort them out of the house, and if they're outside then I leave them be. Except for El Tigre.

I had seen this abnormally large spider around the back yard for a few days in various spots - by the swings, by the small kids toy shed, and then most recently - and in his current spot - by the back porch light. His position was actually pretty good - not in my way, and since I knew he was there, I could try to not disturb him. And that was fine.

Until I realized he was right underneath the porch light. The night I noticed him, I decided to throw him a bone in the form of leaving the porch light on longer than normal. Like for six hours. The moths loved it, but not as much as El Tigre - he had quite a feast that night. As you can see from the photo there, he's in the middle of working on a little snack.

I took this photo about two weeks ago, and since then his web has been destroyed and then recreated more than a couple of times - mostly due to varying bits of rainfall.

When my sons Cub Scout Den came for our first meeting, I made a point of bringing them outside to check him out - they all got a kick out of him. Abby doesn't like him too much, but Ethan likes to take a stool to the back door and try to look out and see what he's doing - I think he considers El Tigre to be like the puppy that we refuse to buy him...