My newest rescuee is this huge spider I found on my lemon tree. The discovery came rather as a shock. She was rather huge, and kind of creepy looking, no pun intended. My first thought was " she's got to go." that is until I found out through Google search that she was not poisonous.
that was when the rescuer in me kicked in, and I wanted to come up with a plan to make sure no harm is done to the ugly fella.
Here is a picture of her on that day.
She gives you the chills, doesn't she? well, unless you are a bug enthusiast!
I don't know if you can see it in there, but that picture was taken on 11/24/2010. That was over a month ago. My worry at the time was the affects of the poison on the free-lemon-picking neighbors, but after I discovered she is harmless it quickly turned into a life saving plan to rescue her from harm's way.
One night shortly after her discovery I heard a faint voice calling my name coming from my front yard where the spider was. As the voice got closer, it became clearer that it was my neighbor of the house across from mine calling out to me. As soon as I opened the door, to my horror, I saw she was standing there with a few lemons in her hands. My head started spinning with different thoughts. Thought#1, " Is that the lemon with the spider on it?" Thought#2, " Is the spider somewhere on her head?" Thought#3, "Did she kill the spider?" Thought# 4, "Why is she foaming in the mouth?"... just kidding... she was just fine, but the thought of foam coming out of her mouth really did cross my mind.
She wanted to let me know that she was all alone and wanted to see if I would go keep her company. It's scary how little she knows about me. I don't know which scared me more, the thought of the spider in her head or spending my free time with her in their smoke filled house? I had to quickly give her an excuse of having to leave soon, so she would leave me alone. I did however tell her to look out for a big spider on the lemon tree that might be poisonous, and I took a flash light to show her where she was for precaution.
She said, " Why don't you just kill it? I can do it for you if you're scared."
Again, very scary how little she knows about me. I said " oh no, please don't harm her. I'll relocate her soon to a safe place." I was thinking a safe place for the spider, but I'm sure she was thinking a safe lemon tree for the neighbors.
We went out with the flash light, so I could show her the lemon on which the spider was perching, but to my horror I couldn't see the spider anywhere. The huge web was there but no spider. Needless to count the number of my thoughts again. They were similar to the ones I already listed. The neighbor assured me that she doesn't even look at the lemons on that side, and that she always picks them from the opposite side of the tree. I just wanted to make sure she was aware of the spider's location (even though I wasn't sure if that's where she was any more). I couldn't really pay too much attention of what else the neighbor was saying. I kept looking for the darn spider under the ever disappearing light of the flash light, and had to from time to time run my hand over my head to make sure no uninvited guests have presented themselves over there. The neighbor's thoughts were more around a murder plot, and I had to make sure that she wouldn't harm the ugly thing until I came up with a plan. I couldn't find the spider any where around that lemon that night, but I found her back on her favorite spot the next day. The neighbor's promise to not bother her wasn't very reassuring, so I had to think of something fast.
Is over a month fast enough to come up with a plan? Well either way that spider is still on my tree. The circumstances have changed a bit though. She is not as fat and rounded as she used to be. As it turns out she was pregnant, with lots and lots and lots of mini ugly versions of herself. She has created this white sack covered with web and filled with eggs.
Here is a new picture of her taken today.
Can you see the difference of how much slimmer she is? She is a mommy now or will be one soon, not sure how that works. Now I have to come up with a plan to transport her and her babies (hundreds of them) to a safe location. That will take some planning. I will keep you posted on how it goes. Stay tuned.... to be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment