A couple of spiders moved into the kitchen recently. They hang out together, and I suspect they may be romantically involved. Here’s a daytime pic of the smaller one –
And this is ‘Big Momma’ on night patrol –
To give you an idea of how big they are, you can actually hear them when they go scampering around the room. Also, while their smaller brethren and sistren are generally unable to climb out of the sink — it has vertical stainless steel sides — these puppies have sufficient size and mass and a sufficient grasp of physics to apply the ‘Wall of Death’ principle. That is, they run horizontally around the inside of the sink like some crazed eight-legged parkour maniac, and half a revolution later centrifugal force sends them flying out the top, home free.
Humans such as Samantha Morgan need a motorbike to make this work. (Pic lifted without permission from the NYTimes)
I can’t say I’m too crazy about sharing the house with them, but fair goes: they really are remarkable animals, and they probably help keep the mozzies down too. Now if only they ate fleas as well…
Tags: bio-control, spiders, Wall of Death
