Spidah!

[furtech]

On return from dogwalk, I go out to take the trash cans down to the curb...and what do I spy? This handsome feller! (Spiders outside are handsome/lovely creatures unless they're crawling on our faces because we just walked into a giant web...)



There's a quarter there for size ref. Here's a larger pic for those interested


He's another male tarantula, similar to the one who tried to crawl into my back door a few years ago. Sodden and miserable, he was crawling on the wall next to the garbage cans. I'm a little surprised to see one out this late in the mating season. I felt a male-geeky kind of sympathy ("I feel yer pain, buddy!) and scooted him into a handy bug container. After a few pictures, I dropped him off on the south-facing hillside in my yard where he'll probably have better luck than his fellow geeks.

Oh, and after I did spider-duty, I found a live bee on my kitchen floor (around midnight). Very odd.

Comments

[mistahbojangles.livejournal.com]

ARRRGGH!!!

[sk-1.livejournal.com]

You just have a knack for attracting the most interesting creatures, don't you? :)

[spunkywulf.livejournal.com]

It's infestation time for youuuuuuuuu!

[cooner.livejournal.com]

Aiee!!

There are tons of spiders, none much bigger than a dime, but LOTS of them always in the breezeway to my apartment ... and one of them LOVES to build a web across the top of the front doorframe. When I take Casey out in the morning I have to be careful not to get a faceful of web EVERY DAY.

Out on the grounds there are bigger spiders who also love to occasionally put up a massive web between two trees right at head-height ... I've gotten into the habit of holding Casey's leash up above head-height as I walk between trees to catch the web before my face does.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

You'd love dogwalks with Roz and I! Especially in July/August! We have contests to see who gets festooned more. Haunted Mansion-level festooning...

[cooner.livejournal.com]

Dogwalks, aieeee!!

I'd have to see how Casey does with that. First off she loves people but she's sorta 50/50 on how she reacts to other dogs ... we'll have to see how she gets along with Frieda or any other random dogs along the way.

Second I haven't had time or opportunity to off-leash train her much, since leashes are required around here (plus, with the afforementioned unpredictability, I don't want her running off after any other dog she sees.) So she might have to be leash-girl on the dogwalks if she goes.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

On-leash is just fine (just because I'm a scofflaw doesn't mean you have to be!). And if she's on-leash and doesnt' get along with Frieda, Frieda will just ignore her. She's starting to realize she's not as young as she used to be, so tends to avoid confrontations these days. We could use some new dog-walk enrichment, what with Cody disappearing to the wilds of Seattle.

[farallon.livejournal.com]

The male and female Tarantulas around here have huge asses and are very furry. It's so hairless looking (though maybe becuase it's soaked?) and has such a small abdomen it me think it might be a Trapdoor or Funnelweb spider. We have both and they can get pretty big. Though that thing is huge, so who knows...

[farallon.livejournal.com]

Ew! I just found this pic of a "Hairless Tarantula" WOnder if that might be it? http://www.nps.gov/pinn/images/spiders/hairless.jpg

[furtech.livejournal.com]

In Roz's "Insects of the Los Angeles Basin" (Hogue--one of the finest reference sources I've ever seen), we identified it as a male (American) wolf spider, which is dark, hairless and a variety of tarantula. Females usually hang out in their trap-door lairs on south-facing hillsides (which my yard has an over-abundance of it turns out).

The first one I'd seen was crawling on the outside wall of my house, right toward the open back door I was standing in (talking on the phone). Imagine my surprise when glanced up and saw him...I'm sure he thought he'd found the Mother-of-all-Trapdoor-beauties.

[martes.livejournal.com]

I think you mean a male trap-door spider. The wolf spiders (not to be confused with the wolf eels) are smaller and brown.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Could be...you've got the book! Hey, here's a cool site:

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/spiderphotos01.htm

For ID'ing spiders.