BS: Spiders in the House...

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Becca72
Date: 29 Sep 11 - 09:02 AM

LOL, Gnu. I took a class in "cursing out a Packard" many years ago, too. It was just a different Packard. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 11:07 PM

Bettynh -

The Prairie Kingsnake is very close to our little invader, or at least the last 4 or 5 inches off the tail of the one in the picture looks like ours. The Kingsnake was one of a couple of suspects when I pulled up the references, but for some reason the refs I found showed entirely different looking things under the Kingsnake name. The pictures I found were probably the Chicken Coop (Eggsucker) Kingsnake instead of the Prairie King Snake - they weren't very specific about the details.

Either way, I hope it moves on to where the bugs are before I do the fall landscaping, 'cause she landed where I've been planning to do some serious weed control and the Roto-Tiller might make snakeburgers.

I did confirm that a mysterious hole in the front lawn, about half way out to the mail box is a spidey hole. It's been there for at least four or five months, and has had obvious increase in diameter, to about 7/8 inch now, smoother walls than when I first noticed it, and some cleanout around the entrance and such, but nothing visible when I looked down into it. A couple of nights ago I aimed a flashlight down in the middle of the night, and got a nice view of some cute little eyes (lots of 'em) lookin' back up at me, on a face that looked a little bit like an extremely tiny little walrus. Could be any of a half dozen kinds that are common here, but it's far enough from the house to be left to her bug control business, unless she starts invitin' the boys over and playin' loud rock music all night.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 05:51 PM

Donuel, please please please tell me you don't live in the UK!!!!! Because if these type of spiders live in UK I'm outa here!

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 05:05 PM

Bobert, I wonder why you never offered a picture of the spiders.
It must not be a serious infestation.
If the spiders are hairy and grey then it is probably a wolf spider.
I have wolf spiders in a shed that measure two and one half inches (which is unusually big) and capable of leaping three feet or more.

One thing to NOT do is use a bug bomb. It will kill off the predators of the spiders and allow the spiders an enviorment to quadruple its numbers to thousands of spiders in 3 weeks.

They could be hobo spiders which are not particularly poisonous but are very septic when they sink their fangs into peoplem somehwat like the Komodo dragon. Hobo spider bites would cause cellulitis and demand medical attention.

The reason why spiders have venom is to paralyze thier prey so they may bind and digest their food with ease. A wonderful spider TV show is called MOnster Wars and is probably available on you tube.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 04:58 PM

I understand there is a newly revised cousre in same on the go at the moment regarding a Packard. People should be advised to sign up.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Becca72
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 03:22 PM

Quite - I am more proficient than many of my peers thanks to years of listening in on home car repairs. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 03:12 PM

Nahhhhh... you woulda done what I did... but without all the swearing. Hmmmm... then again, you were taught to swear by a sailor of note so maybe ya woulda?

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Becca72
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 03:08 PM

Ewwwww! Thanks a lot, Gnu. I would have crashed my car if that had happened to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 02:55 PM

Hehehee... I left my house early this AM without my sunglasses. I keep a cheap pair in the overhead glasses storage compartment in my truck. I popped it open, grabbed the glasses, put them on and that's when the resident jumped on my eyeball. It looked like a blurry giant spider in the movies. I reacted and shut my eyeball and trapped the little bugger. It was squirming to get free and I mushed him on my eyelid. Had to do an eye wash when I got home.

Made me think of Becca! Hehehehehe.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 02:05 PM

I had a spider bite when I was 15 that gave me a horrible infection in my right hand. Had to have hand cut open in 2 places (no anesthetic cheap Army doctors) poison /infection pushed out of the two cuts and then stents put in for a week to let rest drain away. I tell you I shocked my Mom with the swearing. Things I am sure she never heard before.

Just 2 weeks ago a spider got between my sports bra and my back. 9 bites. Itched like the devil for few days but nothing worse than that. Spiders in the UK are wimps. If it had been an American spider I'd probably had a serious allergic reaction.

Spiders just tend to come indoors in the autumn. It is what they do.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Bettynh
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 10:47 AM

John, how about this spotted beauty?

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 10:42 AM

gnu -

I'm not sure our little visitor was a rattler. It was probably too young to have shed more than a couple of skins, and the "rattles" are the leftovers from discarded skins. It looked like it had an ordinary pointy tail, and didn't show any visible fangs.

There are a few Massasauga in surrounding areas, but so far as has been reported they'd be extremely rare in the immediate locale.

Ours was "spotted" similarly, and the guidebooks on snakes in Kansas don't show any other common ones in the area except for several grass snakes, all of which have stripes, and a few less common ones mostly with solid colors rather than the "splotches" on this one.

I'll have to negotiate a more formal introduction if (s)he comes back, or if mommy comes around to see why we kicked her kid out.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 02:32 PM

Becca, I know just how you feel. But if I see one and run away, I don't know where it will appear next. So I always get my long-suffering husband to gently put it outside.
You're quite right Little Hawk, I was very silly to have confessed my phobia in a weak moment to my class. But they had excellent fun with it, albeit nearly giving me a cardiac arrest on many oaccasions.
It's funny, but craneflies (Daddy long legs) don't bother me at all, even though they look a bit spidery. Seeing their wings calms me immediately, and I can put them outside in my hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 01:33 PM

JiK... rattler = dead snake fer me.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Becca72
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 12:55 PM

Just reading this thread is making me sick to my stomach. I don't consider myself to be a girlie-girl but bugs in general and spiders specifically cause squeals of terror for me. I can't bring myself to even get close enough to squish them. Often times I will simply vacate the area and let them have it. 9 times out of 10 when I dog-sit at my sister's house there is a spider inside. I have been known to switch bedrooms to get away from the little bastards. Yeesh! Makes my skin crawl.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 11:56 PM

I was about to comment that one of the few natural "removers" for spiders would be any of the small snakes common around here, but "she" screamed when she found one of the cats playing with one in the pantry a day or so ago.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to what kind it was - just picked it up and tossed it in the grass out the back door, but it was the second similar one I've seen in (or under) the house recently, and a little Googling found a picture that's pretty close at the second one on the page.

Both of the ones I've seen were in the 4" to 5" range, and probably too young to have shed more than one skin - but I'm wondering if I should have kept the last one as a pet? ? ? ? ? ?

(The comments say they live about 15 years, which is longer than most cats.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 07:29 PM

If you eliminate their food supply, you'll get rid of the spiders.

That means you've got to keep insects, especially flying ones, out of your house.

That means you've got to caulk up all the cracks.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 07:07 PM

SINS... that's okay in warm weather. When cold weather comes, do yourself a favour and shoo them outside, even though such might be a death sentence in the end. I do becasue I developed the same reaction you may have. Cellulitis can become necrotizing fasciitis in a matter of hours. I was shocked when my doc explained this to me. So, I shoo them out this time of year. Or step on them if need be. The little bastards don't kick in a dime for my Blue Cross coverage so fuck em.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 05:08 PM

Good God. Whatever possessed you to give them that piece of information, Eliza? You must have taken leave of your senses.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 09:54 AM

I know cockroaches carry disease and are not to be entertained, but they don't cause the instant Waaaah! reaction in me that spiders do. Our supermarket at Wroxham sells Roach Bacon (just the trade name) which always makes me smile. I was daft enough when teaching to tell my pupils that I couldn't abide spiders. Of course, I had rubber ones, fluffy ones coming down on a thread, photos of spiders put in my Register, and even (the little horrors) the occasional real one in my desk drawer. I always screamed the place down, very gratifying for my eight year-olds!

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 09:33 AM

Every year, a spider spins a huge web on my front porch. This year it is in the holly bush. So beautiful when the dew collects on it.
I am rather fond of spiders although I get a vicious allergic reaction to bites. I never disturb one found in my house. They kill nasty things like flies. And are polite house guests.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 08:54 AM

I wonder if (some) spiders are this frightened of people? If so, I think they'd have a good deal more justification for it.

That scene with the cockroaches is pretty horrifying allright!

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 08:34 AM

Luckily in the UK we don't have anything too life threatening to worry about. Pet Tarantulas funny enough I don't have a problem with mainly because of the fact that they are so much bigger and not so much like an insect but the big black house spiders make me go cold. If one so much as crawled across my arm or leg you would hear my screams from one end of the Uk to the other! But I can't kill them, I would rather stay huddled in a corner until it decides to leave on its own accord - eventually.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 26 Sep 11 - 12:06 AM

I hate roaches, big time.

Lived in NYC for about five years. Arrrrrgh! Hate 'em.

Never seen an infestation quite as bad as that, j, but even one's too many as far as I'm concerned. That aside, they are fascinating creatures. But certainly not as interesting as spiders.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 11:45 PM

I can live with spiders easily. I absolutely could not live with this. I'd rather be dead:

OMFG

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 11:22 PM

That was an absolutely horrible movie called "Giant Spider Invasion" or something like that. They showed it on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 once and it was just rotten. Needless to say, MST3K absolutely shredded it.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 10:41 PM

As josepp said, the recluse and widow are very bad news. Another is the hobo spider. I seldom kill spiders, but I make exceptions for those threes. A buddy of mine was telling me that as he was moving some boxes from an attic near Nashville, a gang of them went rushing out from amongst and beneath boxes. As with most creatures, they have migrated and adapted to new environments. This now includes Canada. Nothing to be alarmed about, but something to be aware of.

OK, so this sunamabitch ya gotta watch out for, but he's an excepti

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 09:45 PM

I agree with you 100%, josepp. I've always felt kindly toward spiders. I used to watch them build entire webs when I was a child, and it was absolutely fascinating how well they did it. I became pretty well acquainted with most of the common local varieties of spiders in the process. My favorites were probably the garden spiders that built the very geometrical webs.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 09:39 PM

Brown recluse and black widows are not acceptable to have in the house. If you see one, kill it. You cannot afford to be bitten by one. Few others in the States are quite as scary as those. Unless the wolf spider is very large, I would leave them alone. They don't hurt anything except other creepy-crawlies.

I know of no tarantulas that can jump very high and have never heard of any that would jump at a person. Spiders don't attack anything bigger than they are--that's suicide. They have a very good sense of self-preservation. I could make mine beg. They do rear up in a defensive posture if you dangle something above them because they think it's a pepsis wasp. So you dangle something and say, "Up, up, up!" and it looks like it's begging. Old trick--like a flea circus.

The coolest spiders I've ever heard of are these little red ones that live on the floor of the desert--don't remember which one. The desert floor is pitted with holes and the spider find the right sized hole to use as a burrow.

It can't spin a web outside the hole because the winds blow the sands over the floor and will tear a web to pieces in no time. So that the spiders do is gather little pieces of quartz that are all over the place and place them in a ring around the hole. They are careful to make sure all the crystals touch.

Then they attach a thread to one crystal, drop it into the hole and then attach the other end to the crystal on the opposite side forming a little sling. Then they sit in it like the man on the flying trapeze. When a bug wanders too close, the spiders can feel the vibrations in the crystals and dart out of the hole and grab the critter and haul back down and eat it.

The spiders know the difference between the wind causing the crystals to vibrate and an insect or some other animal. They know how big the creature is, they know where it is around the hole and how far away from the hole it is. It never attacks something too big and never misses when it knabs a bug--that's how exact its knowledge is.

But how do these spiders know that crystals vibrate and can function as a makeshift web? How do they know that the crystals have to be touching in order to conduct the vibration? How do they get such an accurate read on the vibrations?

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 07:54 PM

Any spider will bite if it's hungry. And, they carry nasties. You can get an "infection" from such bites. I did. Got cellulitis. Now, I have to treat even a minor scratch with care and attention. The spider bite was simply itchy and painful to scratch. The infection was serious in nature if not treated properly.

In any case, I try to get them out the door safely as I do with any animal. If I figure I can't, well, there are lots more.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Seayaker
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 07:42 PM

A few years ago when I took a trip to Alaska, at the end of a wilderness trip in Kenai, my hand swelled up like a bear paw. It didn't hurt and soon went down and other people on the trip said it would be a spider bite. What kind of spider would cause that?

I sympathise with Eliza, the british House Spider and anything bigger is out of my comfort zone.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 03:54 PM

It ain't silliness. The spider (I think) that SRS speaks of are in California--members of the tarantula family called Black Mountain Spiders by the local folks in the Sierras. Had two as pets many years ago. Looked like this--but I suspect this one is quite young.

I'd built them an 7' x 3' x 2' screened cage. Fed them grasshoppers and other bugs. They could turn a 3" grasshopper into a cubic cm of leftover and they were very fast. I couldn't have clicked a stop watch fast enough to time a 6' run. But generally they just lazed around. Never found them to be aggressive with me, but I never got between them and their food.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 03:19 PM

Some of the larger African ones can jump. AT you, not away from you. Aaaargh!!! Josepp, I do agree with all you say, they have an important place in the scheme of things, and I respect their value and right to survive. I'm v. ashamed of my silliness!

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 02:50 PM

Tarantulas can bite and if they do it can hurt, but it isn't venomous. If you approach one that feels cornered they rear up on the back feet and wave the front legs at you. And they can do a surprising jump out of harms way, but overall, they're a fairly ponderous spider (quite a bulky thorax and abdomen) and are best left to walk or climb wherever they want to go.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 02:31 PM

LH, tarantulas are harmless. They never bite. And no matter what spider you hold in your hand--even a black widow or brown recluse or Aussie funnel web--they can't bite you because you present a flat surface to them and they cannot bite into a flat surface. When people get bitten by spiders, it's generally because they sat on it, donned a shirt or a shoe with a spider in it or picked clothing up off the floor where a spider was resting. In these cases, it gets squeezed and it will either bite in self-defense or its fangs are actually driven into the skin by the cramped situation.

But handling a tarantula is easy and they are feather light. People expect them to be heavy but they weigh almost nothing. You can handle wolf spiders and trapdoor spiders as well. They simply don't bite unless squeezed. Spiders are a natural pesticide and we can never have too many of them in this world or we'll be fighting a losing with rapidly expanding insect populations that would make it impossible to live. And if faced with the occasional spider prowling up the wall or across the ceiling or a roach infestation--which would you rather have?

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 02:11 PM

Look, he's crawling up my wall
Black and hairy, very small
Now he's up above my head
Hanging by a little thread

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Now he's dropped on to the floor
Heading for the bedroom door
Maybe he's as scared as me
Where's he gone now, I can't see

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

There he is wrapped in a ball
Doesn't notice me at all
Perhaps he's dead I'll just make sure
Pick this book up off the floor

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

He's come to a sticky end
Don't think he will ever mend
Nevermore will he crawl 'round
He's embedded in the ground

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Boris the Spider

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 01:23 PM

josepp, I have an old friend whose life has been bedeviled by extreme arachnophobia. She seems to find them everywhere she goes...pretty typical of strong phobias...and she can't control her fear of them. I'm glad to hear that there are cures out there for the problem. Perhaps the key is confronting one's fear in a safe way long enough to overcome it...hence the spider in the jar method.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: gnu
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:59 PM

I would have the tendency to let it out of the jar onto the floor and see how things go.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:04 PM

I do love that story about Robert the Bruce, josepp. I can tell you now though, if a psychiatrist had a tarantula in a jar, there'd be a puff of smoke and I'd next be seen on my way to Aberdeen! Crawling up my arm??? I know for sure I'd be dead from heart failure. Even the very idea is making me shiver, UGH. (And yet the poor things ask only a bit of space on this earth to make a web and find a mate. I feel awful about it, but there it is...)

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,jsoepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 11:42 AM

Arachnophobia can be extreme and, in such cases, is debilitating to a person and profoundly affects their ability to enjoy life. There are psychiatrists who treat phobias and can cure acute arachnophobia pretty easily. I saw it TV once. A woman was so deathly afraid of spiders that she rarely left her house and had to sit with her legs drawn up for fear a spider might crawl onto her foot. A psychiatrist showed her a tarantula in a jar and she freaked out. He told her that within half an hour she would be holding it in her hand with no fear at all. Of course she said no way.

About 20 minutes later, she opened the jar herself and dumped the tarantula onto her hand and let it crawl up her arm. The host asked her how she felt and she smiled and said she felt fine. I saw a guy who had a terrible fear of spiders undergo hypnosis and do the same thing, he opened a jar with a tarantula and dumped onto his hand and then smiled and said, "This is really cool!" "Are you afraid?" asked the hypnotist. "No," he said, "This spider is really cool!"

They say it's an easily treatable phobia.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 11:31 AM

I think it was Robert the Bruce who battled the English seven times but could not drive them out of Scotland and who watched a spider one night above his head trying to shoot a thread from one beam to another. He counted the attempts and seven times the spider failed. Instead of giving up, the spider tried an eighth time and succeeded and built its web. Bruce decided it was a sign to him to try again and, of course, this time he too succeeded. He then signed an edict forbidding the killing of spiders in Scotland but, of course, it was a symbolic gesture as there was no way to enforce it.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 04:34 AM

I can say with some authority that darned cats have no interest whatsoever in spiders, and on being instructed by hysterically screaming female owner to "Get it!", they sit down and clean their whiskers. I'm absolutely freaked out by spiders, and yet I love all wildlife. If one is anywhere in the room, I just can't sit in there. Luckily my husband has no fear, and picks them up gently to put outside, while I leap up and down moaning with terror. (You should see some of the West African spiders, hairy, dinner plate size and give a very nasty bite.)
Not keen about putting any insecticides or other stuff around the house, as it's probably not good for humans.
They come in for some warmth, but also prefer damper places, so airing cupboards are spider-free. Bathrooms are favourite. I'm sure my phobia is instinctive and uncontrollable, but I'm very ashamed of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:27 AM

That's what works for me. Don't panic the creature you're trying to rescue.

The poor little kid who was holding the camera has my sympathy. But I hope he/she laughs at the video as it ends with the camera lying, unattended, on the floor.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:17 AM

He might have managed it with a bigger bowl and the slow, gradual approach. Spiders, hornets, and other such creatures react fast to any fast movements, but not necessarily to a very slow approaching movement of a glass or a bowl placed over them.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Sep 11 - 12:10 AM

I agree with josepp, a butterfly net might have been the best bet. That spider did need to be out of the house, but he needed more room to deal with the speed.

We used to joke that the wolf spiders that got in the house (my ex's house) when the kids were little were "Tarrant County racers." They always got away and hunkered under large pieces of furniture. Then when we moved here and had tarantulas, the wolf spiders tended to stay away, or at least, in the turf and the garden. They ceded the house to larger spiders, should they choose to move in.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 11:55 PM

There are always some spiders in a house, in any house, it's an inescapable fact of life, so one might as well get used to it and stop worrying about it.

I sometimes catch them and put them outside, because their webs (and the discarded corpses of their prey) are messy. They can generally be caught fairly easily with a wad of kleenex held in the hand and quickly wrapped about the spider.

Not sure I'd try that with the one in the video, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 11:27 PM

Speaking of the video, I knew that guy wasn't going to get it with that bowl. That was way too small. Spiders can move like the wind when they want to. Get a brain and buy a butterfly net for Christ's sake.

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 11:25 PM

I've owned tarantulas and they are harmless. They just sit there most of the time not bothering you--just waiting for a meal. At night they prowl but not for you. I'd pick it up and people would ask why it wasn't biting me. Because I'm not squeezing it or looking much like food. Why would she bite me otherwise??

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 11:21 PM

Just read my old post on this thread - I have trained my neighbors to call me to come remove any tarantulas that get in their houses. I mentioned a call to an organic gardening guru who suggested a way to keep them out. What was funny about that call was that as he hung up and moved onto the next topic he muttered "I wish I had a tarantula colony in my yard!"

There are dangerous spiders, just like there are dangerous snakes and insects. Most of them aren't dangerous, though, so spending time learning the toxic ones and leaving the rest along is a good use of one's time.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Spiders in the House...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 11:17 PM

That video is too funny! He needed a bigger bowl. :)

I have a tarantula colony in my yard - they have holes scattered all around, and every so often I see them out moving. They're fascinating and once I got over the shock that they were here and realized that they are quite delicate, I've enjoyed having them around. They eat insects, snails, cockroaches, small things like mice and probably some of the lizards in the yard. And when my kids were younger we'd do flashlight tours to find them in the evening. The kids would have friends over and ask to go see the spiders at night. Mom the naturalist can't refuse the possibility of creating more converts to the beauty and value of these spiders.

SRS