OMG creepy creepy
Feb. 14th, 2006 17:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I expect to come across spiders when I'm moving even small rocks in the garden. Sometimes they're harmless ones, sometimes they're the false black widows like the one that bit me last December, sometimes they're the real thing. The real black widows don't worry me too much, usually -- I just place my hands carefully when working, and crush any I come across. (They huddle into small balls when disturbed, rather than trying to run.) The other spiders get transferred, unharmed, to somewhere out of the way.
So I kind of expected there might be a widow in one of the short pieces of PVC pipe mixed in with the small rocks I was moving. When I picked up the first one, I looked into it to make sure it was unoccupied. If there was someone in it, I'd poke it out with a stick and make sure it was dead before continuing. No biggie.
When I saw a shiny, round thing taking up more than half the 1" pipe diameter, my heart started to pound, and I put the pipe down slowly.
Ten minutes later, armed with a plastic bag, gloves (which I had twisted thoroughly to guarantee there were no occupants) and a long bamboo skewer, I coaxed the baddie out of the pipe and into the bag. All I can say is Iesu Christo, that is the largest fucking widow I have ever seen. It's almost the largest non-tarantula I've ever seen, rivaling some of the wolf spiders we have. I estimate the leg span at over an inch and a half. It has a beautiful red hourglass, too...
It's in the freezer now; I figure it would need to be killed anyway, so I might as well mount it properly to show it off. But boy, I lost any desire to work out there afterward -- not because I'm afraid of being bitten, but just because I'm so rattled by the sheer size of the thing.
Update: I transferred it from the baggie to a jar, where it runs less chance of being damaged in the freezer. It hit the bottom of the jar with a "clink". Frozen solid, and it will stay that way for at least 24 hours more if I have my way. No coming back from the dead for the venomous thing.
Time for some hot tea, I think.
So I kind of expected there might be a widow in one of the short pieces of PVC pipe mixed in with the small rocks I was moving. When I picked up the first one, I looked into it to make sure it was unoccupied. If there was someone in it, I'd poke it out with a stick and make sure it was dead before continuing. No biggie.
When I saw a shiny, round thing taking up more than half the 1" pipe diameter, my heart started to pound, and I put the pipe down slowly.
Ten minutes later, armed with a plastic bag, gloves (which I had twisted thoroughly to guarantee there were no occupants) and a long bamboo skewer, I coaxed the baddie out of the pipe and into the bag. All I can say is Iesu Christo, that is the largest fucking widow I have ever seen. It's almost the largest non-tarantula I've ever seen, rivaling some of the wolf spiders we have. I estimate the leg span at over an inch and a half. It has a beautiful red hourglass, too...
It's in the freezer now; I figure it would need to be killed anyway, so I might as well mount it properly to show it off. But boy, I lost any desire to work out there afterward -- not because I'm afraid of being bitten, but just because I'm so rattled by the sheer size of the thing.
Update: I transferred it from the baggie to a jar, where it runs less chance of being damaged in the freezer. It hit the bottom of the jar with a "clink". Frozen solid, and it will stay that way for at least 24 hours more if I have my way. No coming back from the dead for the venomous thing.
Time for some hot tea, I think.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-15 16:57 (UTC)You, however, get massive points for dealing with that critter - I would have fainted at best. (Why doesn't Impact teach you how to beat up spiders?)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 04:48 (UTC)How does Impact not teach you how to beat up spiders? :)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 10:49 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 18:16 (UTC)(wandering in randomly)
Date: 2006-02-22 07:38 (UTC)