Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Interesting Guest


We had an interesting guest today! He is HUGE, hairy and has 8 legs! Yes, a taranchula!!! I got really worried because how long has he been out there? Is it a male or female? Are there any babies? What about the kids? Can they get into the house? What????? (The person in this picture is no one we know).

My son was outside playing basketball. As he bends down to pick up the ball, there was our little hairy guest. He had come from behind the air conditioning unit. By the time my son manage to get my attention, and by the time I managed to get the kids settled before going outside, he was on the other side of the yard trying to hide behind a dandelion weed. He was absolutely HUGE!! Obviously an adult one.

I got a plastic bowl and a lid. Then I used the rake to move him away from the wall. As I moved him away, he would raise his rear end up and released some clear fluid. I finally managed to put the bowl over him. Once he climbed up on the side of the bowl, I slid the top of the bowl underneath it. We punched holes in the lid so he can breathe.

I called the exterminator and left a message. I don't want to kill the creature, but I certainly don't want him here!...lol. Hope I don't have nightmares about him tonight!!

8 comments:

Polly said...

Eeeek how scary - hope he is gone now

presious said...

Very much so Polly...Lol We were all freakin' out over here. We've never seen a real live one..with exception to maybe in an aquarium. But for it to be in your own backyard,running free?! Oh my, that is way too close to home....literally! lol!

Once I got it into the container and the lid snapped closed, I took it over to my neighbor's house. Her husband was quite the excited one and volunteered to take it out to another area and set it free. That was the same day. I didn't want it to die. I felt if it stayedin the container overnight, it wouldn't survive.

A good ending to a creepy experience :)

david mcmahon said...

Thanks for your visit and generous comment.

This is quite an experience - we have some beefy spiders here, but no tarantulas.

Pat - Arkansas said...

Ye gods and little fishes! I probably would have had a heart attack! Where I lived as a teenager, on a farm in the country, we would have tarantula migrations, where dozens and dozens (perhaps hundreds) would move across country. I used to have nightmares about being trapped by such a migration on the road, and tarantulas swarming into the car through an open window. Did I say I have arachnophobia? :)

Thanks for your visit to my Jell-O post. Come again anytime.

Elise said...

Oh my Gosh! Spiders really scare me. I once called Solicitor at 10am because there was a small spider in the bathroom. He told me to man up and get rid of it myself. So I sprayed it with airfrshener and ran away. It started moving really fast! What was I supposed to do?!

xx

Barbara said...

Ok, you are totally awesome because upon seeing one of those I think I would have either peed on myself or cried, lol. I am scared of spiders as is, but THAT thing is a completely different story.

Thank goodness s/he didn't get you with the fluid. It thought you were a threat so it was just trying to defend itself. Hopefully it was the only one.

linda said...

I would rather eat my own shoe than go near anything that looked like that. In fact, fear of spiders is the reason I got myself a husband. It was a prerequisite that my husband was unafraid of spiders.

presious said...

Thank you all for your comments...LOL!

Pat...

I couldn't imagine DOZENS of them crawling at one time! Oh my goodness!! Anyone would have nightmares with an experience like that!

You poor baby!

Elise....

I remember as an early teenager, I told my parents I wanted my own room. I was extremely close to my older sister. Finally, I got my room but I would have trouble sleeping alone as I was use to my sister being there.

Well, one night, I decided to sleep in my own room. Low and behold, I had that visitor, the spider. My sister wouldn't help me get him. I tried on my own, missed him. I wouldn't go in that room for weeks!! My stepfather finally got him...lol!

Ms. Bar B...

How are you feeling today? I do hope you are better. I meant what I said in your blog. Let me know.

It was an experience! I had to MAKE myself focus in a very short time. In my household, everyone tends to rely on me in the worse of worse situations....lol!

I had to choose to either let him get away and possibly come back or guarantee that he would be gone for good. Yes, my skin crawled and I got totally grossed out!...lol!

But he's gone....:)

Linda...

Reminds me of when I was married and I was talking to my then husband as he sat on the side of the bath tub after brushing our then 3 year old son's teeth. I was leaning on the bathroom door frame.

I got an itch on my leg and as I scratched, I noticed something inside my pajamas on my leg. I wore those one piece pj's with the feet in them, like the babies where.

I realized it was one of those HUGE, black "water bugs", which is another word for roach. They are attracted to water and they are literally 6 times the size of a normal roach!

I absolutely freaked out! I couldn't figure out how to get my pjs off to get to him and get him off of me.

My husband thought it was hilarious and said, "It's just a bug!" I wanted to strangle him. In the end, he did comfort me...:)

David...

"Beefy" is not quite the term...LOL! This spider was HUGE! You haven't seen a spider until you've seen a taranchula. It will change your perspective, for real!

LOL!