I finally got to see it. The New Mexico giant Tarantula. It was sitting right outside my door a few days ago. I have to say the chills, they went right up from my big toe to the top of my head. It was at least the size of my hand. I wanted to take a picture, but I only had my phone with me and I wasn't about to get close enough to get a good shot.
I have to admit I feel a bit silly being affraid of a bug that the local kids play with or squash, but I just can't help it. The thing was huge! My neighbor came outside and told me I could get close to it to take the picture and that it wouldn't try to attack, but as I started to move in ever so slowly he said to be careful not to upset it or it might jump at me. Not upset it!?!? How the heck am I supposed to know what might upset a tarantula???
Anyway, it has been a few days and every once in a while I see the thing crawling around the outside of the buildings. My rule is that I will kill anything that is in my home. Outside, well, that's their domain. But as I look upon the giant arachnid, I have to wonder: could I kill something that big? What the hell would I do if one was crawling inside my home? Ugghh.
3 comments:
That's it! I'm out!!!!
You know who this is and you've now ruined any chance that I will come back to Roswell for a visit.
It's just a matter of time before he makes his way into your home.
Goodbye my friend!
"Step on spider!"
Don't dis the spider! Giant spiders are awesome, and relatively harmless. You can even let them bite you--their venom is pretty harmless, but it'll feel like a pair of sharpened pencils piercing your skin.
The bastards you gotta watch out for are the tarantula hawk wasps.
http://www.genehanson.com/photos/otherbugs/tarantula_hawk_061805_09.jpg
Not that you wouldn't normally be leery of a two-inch long wasp... They are fairly famous for posesing the most painful insect sting in North America (#2 in the world, in fact). Stings are rare, but those who have been stung say it's the most painful nonlethal experience a human can endure; way beyond childbirth or kidney stones. If you get stung, plan on taking three minutes of your day to lay down in virtual paralysis and scream a lot.
They're called tarantula hawks because one has babies, she uses her sting to paralyze a tarantula and bury it with her eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the still-living tarantula before undergoing metamorphosis and becoming adults. For the record, the tarantula's bite is equally toxic to the wasp, so the initial confrontation is something to be hold--sort of the cobra v. mongoose of the arthropod world. The wasp usually wins.
Oh and by the way, the tarantula hawk is the official state insect of New Mexico. If I were you I'd move.
(Since I know you're wondering... #1 on the insect sting pain scale is the South American bullet ant, whose sting is actually a tiny dose of neurotoxin. The pain of a bullet ant sting has been described as "unimaginable" and lasts a full 24 hours! So yeah, I'd rather take the wasp...)
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