A Home for the Homeless

Right now we have a pea-sized black spider living in our mailbox. I see it every day when I reach my hand in to retrieve our mail (yikes!). I sort of have an understanding with it that it will not crawl on me when I stick my hand inside it's home and I will not dislodge it or it's web from my mailbox. We share the space at this point. I do appreciate that it has erradicated our ant problem. Last summer, we had a colony of ants that took up residence in our mailbox. I must not have had an understanding with them because they would crawl on me and end up in between my letters and junk mail and fall out when I was sorting through it in the house. So, I poisoned them. But the spider, who eats ants, also keeps them away. It's funny what creatures will decide that a little metal box should be their home. My parents had (or may still have) a little (about 2 inches long) lizard in their mailbox. It seemed to be scared everytime someone opened the door and it would scurry away into a small crack. Put a box outside and something is bound to make it their home.