Meet our new pet. It's Adam and he's a giant house spider. He appeared in our house a few days ago. We guess that Adam is a stray or perhaps an asylum seeker. If he is indeed an asylum seeker, he's lucky because he is now living in one.
Adam seems to spend most of his time beneath our sofas but in the evening he likes to run around - traversing our carpet like an Olympic athlete. I put the television zapper next to Adam to give you a better sense of his size. Then he ran off under the television.
Perhaps Adam is simply shy or maybe fearful that we might crush him to death. But there's no chance of that. Shirley and I are both arachnophiles. House spiders are helpful assistants in any home. They will consume any small insects they encounter - keeping one's residence flea, ant and cockroach free!
In fact, I am rather surprised that house spiders are not advertised for sale in the media. Somebody is missing a great business opportunity. However, I guess that spiders generally have a bad press. Some people - our daughter included - are arachnophobic.
They don't realise that spiders like Adam make great pets... Oh just a minute, he's emerging from under the coffee table as I type. "Here boy! Come to daddy Adam! Oh how sweet!" He's just climbed up my leg and now he's sitting just below the laptop screen. "Coo-chee coo-chee coo! Who's a pretty boy?"
See? I told you it was an asylum!
See? I told you it was an asylum!
Aha! It's not Adam Ant....he was devoured by Adam Spider the Insider!
ReplyDeleteI've quite a few large spiders scurrying around my cabin. I've not gotten around to naming them. I've been too busy on my loom weaving their webs into cloth!
Here in England we imagine that Australian spiders are all venomous. It's one thing having a friendly giant house spider running around but I wouldn't want to live with deadly killers!
DeleteNo...not all spiders here are venomous, Yorkie. Don't believe everything you read and see on the fake news.
DeleteI have also heard that many Australian women are venomous, trapping unsuspecting men in their webs. Is that fake too?
DeleteNo...that is true...mainly because men are so dumb. It takes them a long time to catch on! ;)
DeleteYou get to have a nature documentary in your house!
ReplyDeleteIt's quite exciting when a large insect gets trapped in a web and the spider runs out to pounce!
I can imagine David Attenborough's hushed narration.
DeleteAdam's a rather large fellow and would have to go back outdoors if he lived here. I have a strict rule about being under a certain size to stay in the house, and when my mother-in-law (a true arachnophobe - crashed her car once because of a spider) comes for Thanksgiving, all spiders go OUT.
ReplyDeleteP. S. Is Adam a leash sort of pet or does he get his exercise by himself?
ReplyDeleteYesterday I put a little collar round his neck, connected a strong leather lead and took him down to the newsagent's shop. Actually, the way he pulled on that lead it was as if he was taking me out for a walk!
DeleteHeh! Well, either he is very strong for his size or that remote control you used for comparison is very large :)
DeleteMy place is full of livestock in the fall. Spiders,lady bugs and a few flies. They're all finding a comfy spot for winter.
ReplyDeleteThey must think that you and Madam Micro Manager are running an entomological hotel.
DeleteWe like spiders, too. There's a pretty one with a large, impressive web just outside our front door. Just in time for Halloween! 🎃
ReplyDeleteIt will soon be time to get our your black pointy hat and your broomstick to scare off trick or treating kids.
DeleteAs Lee says, not all of our spiders are venomous, just most of 'em.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha, hoo hoo, hee hee hee. Nah, very few. But we do enjoy scaring furriners.
If I come to Australia on holiday I will wear a deep sea diver's suit - just in case.
DeleteActually, Yorkie...the spiders have told me they will be doing that if you come here! ;)
DeleteThere's a zero tolerance policy to spiders in my house. I'm not scared of them but the damn things poop and build webs.
ReplyDeleteYes. Nobody want to see those huge spider turds lying around. It's so easy to slip on them.
DeleteWhen I first moved to Australia, the removal men told me there was a spider living in my drain. I took no notice and they said "it's a Redback, you know!" I think they must have got rid of it for me. I was innocent about snakes and spiders in those days.
ReplyDeleteWhen encouraging emigration to Australia, the ads never mentioned the spiders, snakes, crocodiles or jellyfish!
DeleteI am not at all keen on spiders in my flat, but I have a spidery neighbour about the size of my palm. She has made the most beautiful, picture-perfect web across my bathroom window. During the day, she sleeps. At night, she sits upside down on the ceiling of the window case, waiting for unsuspecting flying insects to end up in her web.
ReplyDeleteWe're not on first-name terms yet, but we exchange friendly nods when we meet.
Strangely, her character seems to match yours perfectly!
DeleteYou should be the one in an asylum ! I would be totally freaked if Adam clumped across my carpet!
ReplyDelete"totally freaked" sounds like a hippy expression to me. Are you a hippy Frances?
DeleteI like a home that is like an asylum, far better than a morgue. If anyone was to secretly record and video the two of us we would be carted away, lol.
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
I have already been in touch with Sussex Mental Health Authority (van division).
DeleteYou HAVE to be joking!! There are two cans of SpiderEx in our house, which are sprayed around all possible areas of ingress and if ever one does get in, it is quickly annihilated!
ReplyDeleteMurderer! After all this time of communicating with you, I discover that you are a killer of innocent creatures. Like a fox-hunting toff, a hare courser or a rhino poacher!
DeleteHmm, do you think that is maybe a bit of an over-reaction, YP? :)
DeleteAdam wouldn't last long in our house. Both Kay and I are arachnaphobes. Something a quarter of its size would have us running for the hills or a rolled up newspaper.
ReplyDeleteWhich rolled up newspaper? I am guessing "The Daily Mail"... (only kidding!)
DeleteI don't mind spiders in the least and would never kill one. However I am not really that keen on any insects or arachnids sharing my space so I humanely evict the spiders (on the few occasions I meet them). As for ants, cockroaches and fleas I seem to have been fortunate in never having been aware of any of them sharing my residence.
ReplyDeleteEven in Chez Edwards there will be tiny parasites lurking.
DeleteI don't kill spiders either, but I would have to re-home Adam if he were in my house. Big spiders trigger my reptile brain and I get woozy.
ReplyDeleteI held a friend's pet tarantula once. It walked across my palm and it felt like feathers. But I'll never do it again.
Reptile brain? Are you a lounge lizard?
DeleteEvery home should have a pet. It's just that yours is somewhat different to most.
ReplyDeleteAs a Geordie might say - Howay pet!
DeleteAdam has a deep voice and he doesn't do small talk.
ReplyDeleteHa! We do the same thing with our spiders -- we leave them alone. In Florida I learned that having a spider in the house isn't a bad thing at all. (And the bug problems in Florida, as you can imagine, are much worse than they are here in England.)
ReplyDelete