Tarantulas are pretty interesting. The ones around here can live to be about 35 years old. They're quite stately members of the spider world. I haven't seen many this year with all of the rain we've had--I hope they're doing well. As it finally dries out this summer and the grass stops growing so fast I should be able to spot their spider holes and see if they're still in them.

A teenaged boy from up the block was walking past my house one evening with his baseball glove held in a strange way. I asked what he was carrying and he showed me a tarantula he'd caught down by the creek. I retrieved a plastic lidded container out of my recycling bin so he could carry it safely (despite their size they are actually quite delicate and very brittle, easily killed). I told him about tarantulas, their life history and diet information, but said it probably wouldn't be happy in captivity so maybe he should watch it for a couple of days, see if it ate any crickets or roaches or whatever he caught to feed it, and if not, let it go in the garden. I didn't want to say "you shouldn't catch that--let it go!" I wanted him to enjoy looking at it for a little while but to realize that it was an important part of our community here and maybe he will be starting a spider colony in his yard if he releases it there.

SRS