"Persistant Little Bugger"

[missmiah]

The Miah/Arachnid Peace Accord of '95 is being severally tested.

As per the accord, any creature known to have eight legs in its normal form or a six-legged thing with a stinger or stinger tail (addendum as of moving to Oklahoma) found within the domicile of Miah will be executed on sight (or as soon as the official executioner comes home from work). Any arachnid found outside the home will be left to its own devices UNLESS Miah would have to walk within three feet of the eight-legged thingy to move through any entrance or to let the dog in, in which case those creatures will be relocated far, far away (this is because Captain does not like to kill anything, including spiders).

Which is what Captain did with the orb weaver that had set up house on my back porch. This thing was HUGE. Four inches across if it was a centimeter (body alone was at least two). Captain went after its web with a broom, relocating it to the other side of our six foot fence and onto the highway yesterday. I figured that was the end of it - the spider was gone but not dead and my porch was once again creepy thingy free.

Until this morning.







Captain came home at lunch and the spider was pointed out once more. Last I saw of it, Captain had found a large container and had plans to capture Yellow-Butt, drive back to base, and release it into the wilds of far away from my house.

If it's back tomorrow... I'm moving.

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I figure you gave the guy a chance. If he's stupid enough of an arachnid to come back, you can make with the smashy-smashy. Besides, a second chance is more than some people get.

[kauricat.livejournal.com]

Oh my freakin' God. The big ones really do bother me quite a bit. You've been more than fair.

[scatteredlogic.livejournal.com]

They tend to spin near lights because the insects they feed on are attracted to light. It's annoying, because I don't like to kill them, either, but I hate having the webs right there around the house.

[rewil.livejournal.com]

At least it's sort of pretty?

The rules are pretty well established; it's in clear violation. Do what you must.

[beeform]

*shudder*

Ew, he's a creepy one! I hope for his sake (and yours) that he doesn't return.

I'd seriously freak if that was outside my house.

[begstodiffer.livejournal.com]

I can relate - there was an incident with Oklahoman arachnids this weekend in my garage. I was in the house watching Sophie, when snazzykathy calls from outside, where she was working, "Hey come here! There's this magnificent spider!". I knew by her choice of words that while she thought it was cool, she really just wanted me to get the hell out there to take care of it.

She had removed a big brush pile/fire hazard next to the garage and was sprinkling sevin power on some ants she found there, when she noticed a small hole in the ground. Out of the hole comes this 3 inch spider, which runs around the corner, through the open garage door, and under the car.

I spotted it with a flashlight and caught it under a plastic bowl. It looked like either a small tarantula or a large wolf spider, but it was definitely one of the big, hairy, burrow-dwelling species. He was cleaning the sevin off his face with his pedipalps, and snazzy was worried that he was going to die because of the pesticide. I told her that sevin isn't nearly as lethal as it should be, and we set him loose in a log pile that serves as the fence between our yard and the neighbors'. They keep the other bugs in check and besides, it was big enough to make a real mess if we squashed it.

[missmiah.livejournal.com]

Both times he (or she) built his web right in front of the motion sensor porch lights in almost the exact same spot, so it must be prime bug catching real estate.

[missmiah.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I found the exoskeleton of a tarantula in the garage my first summer here. Captain says he's seem them on base a few times. We've also had a couple of scorpions in the house. Roswell thinks they're terribly interesting, but I'd rather she not play with them.