Sunday, February 28

In the week or so after we came home from our holiday, I caught a few large Hunstsman spiders in the house.  I know that we co-exist with these creatures but, normally they keep out of sight behind the pictures or other isolated spots, Perhaps while we were away they got used to having the run of the place and forgot about what might happen when we got back.  In any case, they were easy to spot on the cream walls and I had the task of removing them.

Marilyn was all for wholesale murder but I am more inclined to catch them and gently chuck them into the garden. I use a small brush and dustpan or, occasionally, a feather duster, hoping to catch their hairy legs in the fronds.  I don't always have much success and Marilyn throws her hands in the air, thinking of the finality of wholesale slaughter.  It doesn't always pay to be kind.

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a couple of the monsters in the car.  Clearly, they were quicker than me and scurried out of sight.  One hopped out when Jamie opened the back seat a few days later but the other one didn't surface until today when I folded down the back seat to fit in a long parcel.  I didn't catch it, of course, and it escaped under the driver's seat where it might still be.  I haven't the heart to tell Marilyn in case she refuses to get back in the car, and I'll have to make a real effort tomorrow to seek and destroy.  Maybe some kind of insecticide bomb might be a good idea.

What amazes me is that large spiders can find enough to eat in the small world of a car.  It just makes you think about what food sources it finds.  What other creepy crawlies have made their home there?  There could be a whole eco-system driving around on those four wheels.