We don't protect them at our house . . . we squash 'em!

Have you ever heard of the Braken Bat Cave meshweaver spider? Well, he cost you some money -- about $15 million.

A $15 million highway construction project was begun in San Antonio in the spring of 2012. About six months and $2 1/2 million into the project, someone discovered that the project ran through the spider habitat. So the project was scrapped.

Not only was taxpayer money wasted, but the aborted project contributed to the bankruptcy of Ballenger Construction which held the contract. One can only assume that this chain of events filtered down to Ballenger's creditors' creditors who in turn had to make up their shortfall somewhere. It's impossible to know how many Texans suffered adversity because of what most of us consider to be a pest.

The newspaper headline on this article was also interesting -- "Rare spider forces scrapping of San Antonio highway work." No, the rare spider didn't force anything. Some environmentalist wacko did the forcing at our expense.

Endangered species or not -- if Mr. Meshweaver decides to take up abode in my house, he won't be protected. We squash 'em around here!

"Rare spider forces scrapping of San Antonio highway work." The Dallas Morning News; October 3, 2012; p. 4A.