Along Came a Spider

I know, I know, "spiders are our friends". I have even carefully and humanely picked up the small ones in a kleenex and deposited them outside to keep the insect populations under control out there. Ususally, here in western Washington, spiders are not a big problem. But last week, we had a visitor that I cannot allow in my home: A brown recluse spider.

Originally, these dangerous spider's range was from Kansas to Texas, but their range is expanding through the unwitting assistance of humans, and they can now be found in any of the lower 48 states.

We have seen them in the house before, but we were unaware that they were brown recluse spiders until I looked on ENature.com

I was sitting in a dimly lit room watching TV and I thought I saw something on the floor, but I dismissed it as my imagination and the reflected light from the screen on the hardwood floor. Because we have a cat I am always on the lookout for any "critter" that might interest him.

My husband came in the room and turned the table lamp on low. The TV guide again claimed my interest and my husband and I were in the middle of a conversation about nothing in particular, when out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. It WAS a spider, and it was moving pretty fast. This was a BIG spider too. So big that I could imagine I could hear it skittling across the floor.

Normally, I do not move all that fast, especially when I am getting out of the extended lounge chair, but this mission called for speed and accuracy, and I had both. WHACK! It was a quick death, and I had to retrieve the carcass before Rocky came snooping around. Ewww! It was so creepy to pick up a spider that is big enough to feel through the kleenex!

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