So okay...this is NOT my usual blog.
And it is not for the faint of heart. Graphic pictures ahead! You've been warned. Continue at your own risk. Blah Blah Blah
Let me first state my position. I try really hard to not kill any creature. I cry when I step on a snail. If a spider is not dangerous, I will let it stay in my apartment - much to my daughter's dismay. She is a definite arachnophobe. She can't even look at PICTURES of spiders, let alone the huge one that was in our apartment this week.
It was always my understanding that this type of spider was a wolf spider. Let me tell you a story.
We lived in a house approximately 2 miles from where we live now. Nice house...new subdivision...loved it. We rented this house for close to 5 years. After we had lived there for awhile, a spider took up residence in our entry way closet. It was a fairly large spider...maybe the size of a nickel with it's legs.
It was a very sweet spider...until it wasn't. It stayed in the closet and only peeked out from under the door. We never saw it venture away from that closet.
Until one day, my daughter was sitting on the couch watching tv and glanced over to find the spider sitting beside her on the arm of the couch. Needless to say, mayhem ensued.
Previously I had Googled spider types that were common in the Sacramento area where we live. I swear that the search resulted in me finding pictures of this very same spider and it was labeled a wolf spider. It said they were very shy spiders who would always avoid a human. I would also swear that there was more than one article with pictures stating this.
I had flat out refused to kill it until it challenged my authoritay by sitting right beside Adie. Not only did it sit beside her, it escaped into a cat-created hole in the couch. We actually ended up giving the couch away because Adie could find no peace with it in the house.
Fast forward to this week where a HUGE spider of the same type was found in my room by Adrienne. She actually remained remarkably calm (relatively speaking). I was in the bath tub at the time and despite her entreaties, I took my sweet time to get out and see this "monster" spider.
It was HUGE. And over my bed. So what did I do? Acting off of my believe that this was a harmless, shy spider, I got a box and the Swiffer and tried to knock it into the box from the top of the wall where it preferred to reside.
It didn't work.
The spider seemed quite cagey and quick. So I decided to get my camera and take some photos so I could use Google image search to verify what type of spider it was and whether or not it may just live with us. I was a little reticent to let it live in the apartment - for obvious reasons. But I did want to relocate it somehow.
With my daughter yelling at me for taking pictures instead of killing it, I took a couple photos that turned out pretty nice. I used the best one to do the image search.
This is it's backside. I think. I actually like that pretty green mark.
These are the image search results I got from Google.
Ummmm...not a match but thanks for trying. lol
So I turned to twitter and with various wonderful people helping me out, determined it was probably a Jumping Spider. It is the HUGEST jumping spider I have ever seen. We have them here all the time, but they are much smaller. This one was probably 4x the size of the ones I am used to.
So I got off the internet and decided to take another photo (my daughter was still yelling at me for this).
And the spider went into the vent. ((((((((((((((((((((((
Hoooo boyy. I REALLY heard about it then. haha So just closed my vent and hoped that was the end of it.
Of course it wasn't.
Today at about 3pm I walked into my room and there was the lovely spider (it is quite pretty in a VERY scary way) right above my bed.
So of course I went and got my camera. :-)
Look at that! It's pretty crazy. and hairy. It has a flower on it's butt! wow.
This was Adie through the incident. Haha! Can't say I blame her.
Well, right after taking the photos, the damn thing dropped down the wall right in front of me. It was on a web so it looked very spidermany. But scary! I had to kill it. Luckily I was wearing boots.
Sorry little spider!
xoxo
