Thursday Invertebrate Blogging: Eensy Weensy Spiders

The eensy weensy spider Crawled up the water spout Down came the rain and Washed the spider out Out came the sun and Dried up all the rain And the eensy weensy spider Crawled up the spout again The spider pictured above and below left is Achaearanea tepidariorum, the common house spider. She had constructed a web in the watercan pictured to the right. Arachnophobes (hi jessamy!) will be pleased to learn she was removed from said watercan and deposited unharmed in the neighbor's yard. The more robust looking fellow in the two photos below right is a jumping spider. Family Salticidae, sub-family either Dendryphantinae or Euophryinae if I am not mistaken. Please take this identification with a grain of salt(icid) since I am not an arachnologist.

The spiders pictured above earned the modifier "eensy weensy" because both were about the size of a pea.

However, a much bigger spider looms in the recesses of my childhood memory.

One summer day when I was about five, I was visiting my mammaw. We were in the kitchen fixin' to make bannana pudding with some newly purchased bananas. Our plan was delayed when a large, hairy, slow moving spider crawled out of the bananas and on to the kitchen counter. Memory says it was big as a saucer, but logic tells me it was about the diameter of the sink drain (more on that later).

Mammaw exclaimed  "Lordy mercy what a spider!" and calmly but quickly flipped it into the sink with the fly-swatter (swatting it was out of the question due to its size). She then turned the water on full blast and attempted to wash the spider down the drain. It was difficult since the spider was about the same size as the drain hole, but after a few seconds it was gone.

Five seconds later it crawled back out of the drain.

She washed it down again.

Five seconds later it crawled out again.

Finally, she used scalding HOT water and left it running for at least half a minute.

It didn't come back.

Was it a juvenile tarantula? That's what I choose to believe.

Comments

[rachel]

My uncle Joe found a wolf spider trapped in a bucket in my grandparents' garage in Door County, Wisconsin once...he took pictures of it and emailed them to us. You could see its **eyes**. It had grey fur. Joe fed it for a day or so until he could release it into the wild. I still shudder when I think about it.

[Karen]

I actually like spiders (except if they jump on me) it's only selachophobia nighmares I have...much worse and more teeth.

[Eric]

Ahhh! I've never been fond of spiders, but your sink story reminds me of an episode of "Night Gallery" that still gives me nightmares!

[Sunidesus]

AHHHHH!!!! Eeekkk!!!!

*runs from the room until someone deals with the spider*

(good pictures though!)

[Jessamy]

AAAAHHHHHH!

[PTK]

I'm with Jessamy, I've never been fond of spiders. My childhood memories are of going to Florida on summer vacation. Huge black spiders(size of a dinner plate) would come into the stucco house we rented and climb up the walls and across the ceiling. I couldn't sleep at night, just waiting for one to fall off the ceiling on to me. I'm sure they were harmless, but the looked gruesome.