I stumbled across this beauty whilst digging in my yard yesterday and instead of smashing it to death with my spade as I was immediately tempted to do, it somehow made its way into a jar on my countertop.
Now I wouldn't consider myself as an arachniphobe. The only bug I really run screaming from is a cockroach, but I must admit this guy gave me the willies. I know it looks like a huge tarantula-type in the picture, but in reality it was only an inch and a half long or so. That's big enough for me though. The boys, of course, wanted to know what kind of spider it was, and I was curious to know if it might be, you know, venomous in a deadly sort of way, so I jumped onto my surfboard and hit the internet. Let me tell you that after half an hour of looking at the creepiest eight-legged creatures on earth, my latent arachniphobia was emerging. My skin was literally crawling and I had to wipe the cold perspiration off of my brow. There are some crazy spiders out there folks!
This particular specimen turned out to be a trapdoor spider of the female variety. And its bite produces only mild discomfort. It was a very informative experience and I was able to introduce my boys to pictures of the black widow spider, so now they know to run screaming if they ever see that little red hourglass. They spent the rest of the evening taking turns staring at it in the jar, and only once did I have to intervene to keep it from escaping into my home. James wanted to know when it would start laying eggs. At that point I was ready to say goodbye, so currently our little friend is visiting James's kindergarten class(hopefully permanently). I am sure his teacher is thanking me right now.
1 comment:
gross.
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