The early mornings really are not for us. Still, out of necessity, I get up early in the mornings on weekdays to get the kids up and on their way for school. This doesn’t mean we jump out of bed and bounce around the house, getting dressed lickety-split and out the door in a flash. We’re usually pretty tired and just drudging through the motions. This morning, however, something happened that left me and Jennifer WIDE AWAKE. It also left me with my heart pounding in my chest long after it was over!
When it was time for Jennifer to go out to the couch to put on her shoes, etc., after she’d gotten dressed for school, I led her out of her bedroom and into the living room. As she walked away from me, I turned around to switch on the lamp. I turned back around to see Jennifer walk right into a HUGE black spider hanging from the ceiling!
I screamed and Jennifer jumped back. The spider that had been on her chest only a second ago flew off of her and around in a circle. We watched in horror as that big black spider just swung there from the ceiling and I was hoping we didn’t lose it, because I wanted to make sure we could kill it! (Sometimes I do catch and release spiders, insects and any critters that get into the house. Or I try to lure them out if I don’t want to get stung or bitten by them. But spiders are a different story! I usually kill spiders – especially the big scary kind! I’ve had to deal with way too many black widows and wolf spiders when I lived in the desert to catch and release all the spiders I find in my home. Well, except solpugids. Those were too cool to kill! We usually caught them and set them loose somewhere. Ditto with the walking sticks. ANYWAY!) To those who are against killing spiders, I just have to say that my mom instincts kicked in overdrive here. I had to protect my babies! Couldn’t let this spider live to get back into the house and bite the children! Or get anywhere NEAR them!
Once we made sure that the spider wasn’t going anywhere, Jennifer and I slooooowly backed away from it. Jennifer would NOT take her eyes off of it! She also flinched when she thought it moved. I was prepared to kill the thing myself but I was too scared to get too close to it. I DID take a picture of it, but even then I didn’t get too close!
So I told Jennifer to go wake up her dad. When he came out and saw the spider, he got closer and looked at it. Then he turned around and told me it was a ground spider. (I’d never seen one before, or heard of them.) He turned back around to examine it some more then used his shoe and a fly swatter to kill it with.
After all that excitement was over, I was still scared about the whole thing. I kept seeing Jennifer walk right into it!! It drove me crazy. Jennifer was still shaken up, too. We felt a little better after I looked it up on the Internet and learned that they are harmless to humans.
Here are two links I came up with. The second one has a more accurate image of the kind of spider in the living room:
Spiders in the Home
(Ours is Figure 3)
BugGuide
And here is the picture I took:
When it was time for Jennifer to go out to the couch to put on her shoes, etc., after she’d gotten dressed for school, I led her out of her bedroom and into the living room. As she walked away from me, I turned around to switch on the lamp. I turned back around to see Jennifer walk right into a HUGE black spider hanging from the ceiling!
I screamed and Jennifer jumped back. The spider that had been on her chest only a second ago flew off of her and around in a circle. We watched in horror as that big black spider just swung there from the ceiling and I was hoping we didn’t lose it, because I wanted to make sure we could kill it! (Sometimes I do catch and release spiders, insects and any critters that get into the house. Or I try to lure them out if I don’t want to get stung or bitten by them. But spiders are a different story! I usually kill spiders – especially the big scary kind! I’ve had to deal with way too many black widows and wolf spiders when I lived in the desert to catch and release all the spiders I find in my home. Well, except solpugids. Those were too cool to kill! We usually caught them and set them loose somewhere. Ditto with the walking sticks. ANYWAY!) To those who are against killing spiders, I just have to say that my mom instincts kicked in overdrive here. I had to protect my babies! Couldn’t let this spider live to get back into the house and bite the children! Or get anywhere NEAR them!
Once we made sure that the spider wasn’t going anywhere, Jennifer and I slooooowly backed away from it. Jennifer would NOT take her eyes off of it! She also flinched when she thought it moved. I was prepared to kill the thing myself but I was too scared to get too close to it. I DID take a picture of it, but even then I didn’t get too close!
So I told Jennifer to go wake up her dad. When he came out and saw the spider, he got closer and looked at it. Then he turned around and told me it was a ground spider. (I’d never seen one before, or heard of them.) He turned back around to examine it some more then used his shoe and a fly swatter to kill it with.
After all that excitement was over, I was still scared about the whole thing. I kept seeing Jennifer walk right into it!! It drove me crazy. Jennifer was still shaken up, too. We felt a little better after I looked it up on the Internet and learned that they are harmless to humans.
Here are two links I came up with. The second one has a more accurate image of the kind of spider in the living room:
Spiders in the Home
(Ours is Figure 3)
BugGuide
And here is the picture I took:
It's not a really good picture. The spider is on the right, its shadow on the wall is on the left.Soon it was time to leave for the bus stop. At the bus stop, we were both still a little shakened up but we lightened the mood by remembering funny things in a movie we had watched last night. That actually helped us feel better.
But after I got back home, I did a big search of the house to make sure there weren’t any other spiders hiding somewhere. Or hanging around anywhere!
This definitely made me think I need to turn on the lights and check the rooms when I get up in the mornings. Sort of do a morning patrol to make sure everything is all clear. I don’t want another episode of one or both of the kids walking into anymore spiders – or being surprised in the early mornings by anything worse than a harmless spider!
But after I got back home, I did a big search of the house to make sure there weren’t any other spiders hiding somewhere. Or hanging around anywhere!
This definitely made me think I need to turn on the lights and check the rooms when I get up in the mornings. Sort of do a morning patrol to make sure everything is all clear. I don’t want another episode of one or both of the kids walking into anymore spiders – or being surprised in the early mornings by anything worse than a harmless spider!
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