The air is smelling fresh and there is a crisp coolness in the morning. And, the cold weather is bringing spiders into the warm nooks and crannies of inhabited buildings.
And, apparently, all the spiders want to meet hamster_grrl.
At home the other night, I saw a brown spider about the size of a quarter crawling along the kitchen counter while I was cooking dinner. I trapped it under a cup, inquired about its deadliness (none), and we took it outside and set it free.
Then, the very next day, as I was doing some cleaning at the farm, this guy decided he wanted to say hi:
I asked one of the gals that work on the farm if it was deadly, and it is actually a quite harmless Huntsman spider.
Now, I personally think that this is a big mother fucking spider. Especially compared to the white tail from my previous spider post. I mean, check out this one when placed next to my nalgene:
He's 100ml tall!! My goodness! But, the Aussies here have told me that it's not THAT big, like it's maybe a medium spider. My Argentinian friend has also remarked that the spider is "a bit small". This has led me to believe that either the spiders in the Southern Hemisphere are much larger, on average, than those in the Northern Hemisphere. Or, the people are just crazy.
All I'm saying is that if I can actually see the hair on the spider, it's big.
Stu the Hunstman was trapped pretty easily in the little jar there, where he chilled out on the benchtop while some crazy American woman took a billion pictures of him, and then we went for a walk outside and I put him in an area of leaf litter, rocks and trees that he seemed to take to quite happily.
Happy Hunting, Stu!
4 comments:
I also hate spiders!! But the BIGGEST spider I ever saw (that was alive) was actually along a river in NEW JERSEY! Near egg harbor of all places! http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Pisauridae/Pisauridae.htm
There are some pics of the big old hairy guys!
I nearly flipped my kayak trying to get away from one that looked like it was 6 inches (including legs) long!!!!
Come back to the states soon. I'll leave spiders for you on your desk if you want!
After a couple of quick searches I found pictures of the kinds of spiders we find in our gardens. They are generally denominated "chicken spiders", but the scientific name of the genus is Grammostola. Their sizes range between 2 and 4 inches, most of which is encompassed by big abdomens. These are links to some pics:
Argentinean Rose (aka "araña pollito")
Araña pollito (in Spanish)
Fede
But I thought everything in Australia is poisonous.
Snex-yikes! I am not sure how I would handle a water-based escape from a spider. No need to put any spiders on my desk, I am sure it is piled with enough crap to provide a cozy home to spidie friends already.
DAMN! That spider was in your garden, Fede? THAT's a crazy huge hairy spider!
Jeff - Little known fact: Everything in Australia IS poisonous. The only way to survive is to have a steady supply of wine (at least a glass daily) to dull the pain and help one build up a tolerance.
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