Friday, September 26, 2008

A NOT so itsy bitsy spider!

(Another re-post! Sorry!)

One thing you see a lot of in the jungle are spiders. At first, they catch you off guard and give you a fright. But after awhile, you start to expect them and don't get too excited when you do see one.

There are several poisonous spiders and they are not all big. Some are quite small. Of course, many are Very large. The tarantula is by far the largest. But even tarantulas vary in size. The average tarantula has only about a 6 inches leg span. However, things in the jungle are rarely average!

We had several encounters with spiders. The scariest spider is not as large as the tarantula, but is very fast. This is the Monkey Spider. It has only about a 4 inches leg span but can jump several feet in one single HOP! It is also poisonous. Once my son was chased by one of these monkey spiders!

But the tarantula is huge! My husband knocked one out of our palm roof which was so heavy, I heard the THUNK as it hit the floor even though I was in another room!

Tarantulas however are stupid and slow, and it is a good thing they are!If you ever run across a tarantula, remember this...don't poke at it, it will rear up into a striking pose and reveal it's fangs! Don't hit it, it's exoskeleton is too hard! Don't dare touch it, its hair will cause severe itching! So what to do?

My husband learned this the hard way, but all you have to do to get rid of a tarantula is...BLOW on it! Really, bend down and puff at it! It will run away! Every time...well, most of the time anyway. My husband was camping out on a river trip once and a tarantula was nearby. He bent over to get a closer look, and a cruel jungle MK (missionary kid) blew on it! The thing nearly climbed Clint's leg! You got to watch out for those MK's! They are by far the most dangerous creature in the jungle!

My kids would often catch tarantulas to play with during school. Like I said, Mk's are ...different. The game went like this. Place the tarantula in the middle of the table where all 4 kids are studying. As the tarantulas crawls toward them, the child will PUFF on it and redirect it towards their sibling, who will in turn, PUFF it towards another. This can go on for hours! I know, my kids are strange,but...HEY! They had no X Box!(or even nintendo!)

But one day, we saw the MOTHER OF ALL TARANTULAS!!!

My son had the daily chore of taking out our garbage. We had dug a big garbage pit about 50 meters or so away from the house and each day the trash was dumped there and burned. Josh left with the trash one morning and quickly came running back to the house. He ran into his room, grabbed his pellet gun and ran back out the door. I yelled after him, " What are you doing?" He answered over his shoulder, "I am going to shoot THAT spider!"

Now, we all heard this and decided to run after him. We wanted to see this spider he planned to shoot!He had complained for days that there was a big, BEEFY,spider living in the garbage pit. He was right!

We arrived at the pit right as he took aim. This tarantula was HUGE! It was the size of a dinner plate! This was no spider to swat at with a magazine! No, Josh was right. The only way to get rid of this baby, was to shoot it.

Which he did.


Sis. Julie said...

Oh me!!! A dinner plate?? Wow!! I don't like the smallest of spiders....I would have absolutely freaked had I seen one that large. Spiders freak me out. I know some jump and others run very fast. That is why I tend to stay away from them since I don't know what they will do. I TRY to get the man in the house (my used to be Ronnie but he is married now and his wife has him doing these things...LOL!!) to kill them. You are definitely in God's will being where He has you for you to be so calm about all these critters. Not to mention He has protected you from them to this point.

Now I have the creepy crawlies...LOL!!

Brooke said...

OMGosh, and I though I was freaking out with yesterday's post!

I HATE HATE HATE spiders! Just last night I made my hubby get out of bed and get one off the ceiling, and it certainly wasn't dinner plate sized! LOL!

cube said...

Yikes! I'd be walking around with my pellet gun every minute of the day. I wouldn't put it down.

Jackie said...

I started a new blog that is open to the public. Would you mind spreading the word?

~K~ said...

A spider the size of a dinner plate? I think I'd run!

Thankfully, we don't have too much by the way of bugs here. My "tropical" experience was Florida, and I disliked the big roaches and palmetto bugs. We get tiny Asian roaches her.

ABNPOPPA said...

Your posts never are dull that's for sure. I couldn't imagine living in the jungle to start with and if I ever saw those kinds of spiders I wouldn't never get any sleep. You are truly a very special person and family!

crazy4danes said...

Holy cow! I'm am not a fan of spiders, however, the Tarantula has never been too scary to me. I think it's because my second grade teacher had them all over the classroom as "pets" and we had to take care of them...they are actually quite gentle and slow. Anyways, glad your hubby figured out how to get rid of him without killing him. :)

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