Texas: Hey you know how you and Gordon sometimes wax poetic about moving to Australia, with beautiful beaches and nice hot weather, and random wildlife that tries to murder you?
Me, rubbing my eyes first thing in the morning: Mhm.
Texas: Don’t go. I love you. Look, I’m really trying. I made this just for you. Look how furry it is.
As I was getting out of bed this morning, Gordon opened the door from the bedroom to let the dogs out and was like, “Bring the phone!” That’s the view.
It’s not even the mating season. That’s in august. I just checked and our visitor is still there crawling on the wall. That’s Aphonopelma Hentzi, otherwise known as Texas brown tarantula. A good size, too.
And how is your morning going?
Nope! Nope, nope, nope. Absolutely not! Move immediately.
Holy cow! I was first comment on a post.
LOL! Burn it all down and start over. No house. No spider. Right?
Heartwarming to see how many people are concerned for the spider’s temperature ????.
Ok, mostly heartwarming for the spider as he perishes in the suggested home incineration, but still…
Poor guy just came to say hello. Kinda cute looking
Australia? Where the place actively tries to kill you? Texas is fine. East Tennessee is better, but that’s just me.
me too!
Australians are too laid back for that, even our animals. Honestly, only the crocodiles will try to kill you, and the drop bears. 😉
Uh yeah, accurate except for the sharks ????
so swim between the flags
The sharks aren’t really trying to kill you, they just mistake you for a seal and you die.
The crocs though, they are trying to kill you.
Also don’t get too close to a Kangaroo. They will also try to kill you. Lean in to give you a hug and then kick you in the chest! HAHA
Some sort of cultural weirdness in the US about our wildlife…the only people I’ve known to keep spider charts on the fridge and freak out more than necessary over a Huntsman are American. Not even poms routinely raise it, and they have NOTHING there that will kill you in your own backyard…
ummm..yikes!
I’ll take my trip to the dentist over that.
I feel the same about scorpions in AZ. Lived here 17 years and I still scream when I see one.
Awww! But he is so cute!
I admit that is a bit shocking first thing but I’ll take a tarantula over a black widow any day.
My day is awesome! I am cataloging a physical copy of Sweep of the Heart at the moment!
Lots of holds today — people love books!
Black widow spiders hide from people. Brown recluse spiders are more likely to bite you.
Blow Recluse bites are horrible. A good friend’s hubby was bitten by a brown recluse, and it damn near rotted his arm off.
Blergh
Reminds me of when I got the massive urge to clean out the garage one day. Found so many Black Widows and their egg sacs. My husband came home and practically screamed at me “where are your gloves”? He was so mad!! So I dutifully wear gloves whenever I move stuff around in the garage!!
Are those things dangerous? They look dangerous.
Nahh. They are venomous but only mildly and are pretty docile. They eat roaches, which is helpful.
I find it hilarious that about every time one of my brothers encourages me to move to Texas, you post something like this and I tell them “but what about…?” and they say “never saw them”. One of them even lives not all that far from where you are, I think (he’s in Leander).
It’s like with cars and computers where the mechanic/technician says they can’t recreate the problem.
I’m from San Antonio TX. I didn’t know Texas has tarantulas…”never saw them”.
They eat roaches? Starting to look a little cuter.
Just a little.
I have the same problem with scorpions, lots of scorpions, all different kinds of scorpions, here in Arizona. I have a pest guy comes every two months treats all around my house and pretty much keeps the creepy, crawly, crunchy things out until the day I’m brushing my teeth, look down, and there’s a bark scorpion in the sink. I just keep telling myself, “but they eat cockroaches, that’s their primary food is cockroaches. Cockroaches bad = scorpions good, right? ” as I run for a kettle of boiling water followed by a quarter cup of Clorox poured down the drain.
Arizona has tarantulas too. had one about that size in the barn last year
I read that as “had one the size of a barn last year”. If that’s AZ, I figure TX is doing spiders the size of airports.
???? me too! I admit I was torn between amusement at how people exaggerate about local crawlers, and being impressed at the prospect of a barn sized spider!
Now the Sydney Funnel Web Spider, that one has venom thst really will kill you. Stay in the Northern Hemifphere, please
Huh I live not far from Sydney as didn’t even know there was a funnel web spider named after it.
So i googled it,
Sydney Funnel-webs have one of the most toxic venoms (to humans) of any spider. However, it is not true that all funnel-web bites are life-threatening. The venom of juvenile and female Sydney Funnel-web Spiders is much less toxic. Nor do they jump onto, or chase people, or live in houses – these are all urban myths.
please come live in Australia, the animals are cute (even the scary ones :))
Really? Will you box him and send him to me? Florida here. I will pay shipping if they eat palmetto bugs (giant roaches that fly/glide.
Scorpions would be worse I suspect.
No, just no. And so sorry, but better you than me!
Omg move here!!!! Yaaassss!!! I live in the southern part of Australia and there aren’t as many crazy animals maybe in the outer suburbs or the bush. There you’ll get the odd brown snake( which can kill you) You have to go looking for them unlike Queensland which is just a filled with wild fauna and flora. We do get the occasional Hunstman spider though they don’t look as scary as tarantulas. Poisonous but they don’t kill you, they kill all the yukky bugs which is handy. Mine lives under the fridge, I’ve named him Eugene.
Don’t be knocking Queensland. It’s a wonderful state. I too have a live in huntsman that my son picks up and has named Frank. He’s wider than my 3yr old son’s hand. I’m not keen on how far they can jump though.
Burn it! Burn it all down with a flamethrower!
J/K spiders do the greatest at eating the unwanted bugs.
But tarantulas and scorpions…. You have definitely convinced me never to move to Texas.
ummmm nz has nothing deadly and has beautiful beaches too, just saying. that spider is a no for me.
I think I read somewhere that New Zealand is just like Australia, but without the deadly wildlife. Would that ever be an option?
I can’t even look at that tarantula pic without getting the heebie jeebies.
Sigh, hang in there. Have a good rest of your day.
I’ve visited New Zealand twice (went from furthest south to the furthest north in a campervan), and I thing it is the most fantastic place in the world – I love it!
I will vouch for this. Loved traveling around both islands. Such friendly, self-reliant people, too! Good food, gorgeous beaches, all the weather.
I have heard many good things about Australia, but good lord, Google “Australia spiders”. And there are more deadly creatures on that continent too. Might make a good vacation / source material for more post-shift stories?
So I grew up in Oklahoma and still live there. At Girl Scout camp we would catch tarantulas in jars pretty frequently. A friend at work was telling me that her sister had moved to Oklahoma from South Dakota and bought a home across the road from an open field. First tarantula she saw, she was on the plane back to the Dakotas. I laughed and laughed.
It’s so cute and fuzzy! I grew up with my parents’ pet tarantula named Charlotte. my brother and I would catch and carry grasshoppers half a mile from the abandoned railroad tracks to our home in our bare hands to feed her. I don’t want a tarantula of my own, but it always makes me smile to see them.
I agree – tarantulas deserve more love! They’re such cool spiders. I once found a tarantula graveyard when I was hiking in Death Valley – it was a cold winter and all the tarantulas had gone into this one canyon but they died of the cold. It so sad seeing the 20+ dead tarantula bodies.
Here’s how you know that you have grown up in Texas. As kids, we constantly visited the older couple who lived next door. To get there, we had to walk past a large tarantula hole. It was explained to us by the adults, including parents, that we needed to give the tarantulas several feet of space because they could jump if scared. Other than that, leave them in peace and there would be no problems. Never once did anyone suggest the tarantulas be killed. To this day, while I give tarantulas plenty of respect and a wide berth, I view them as part of the landscape. It’s a Texas thing!
????
Nope. Just nope.
Texas has tarantulas but it also has fields of blue bonnets like the first picture.
When I lived there, the highway department would plant wildflowers in the medians and along the sides of the roads. It was beautiful when they bloomed.
They don’t bother me when they’re standing still. I have to admit that when they move fast, it does freak me out a little. I would definitely rather encounter the tarantula than the wasp that hunts them however.
I would prefer a live hairy tarantula to dead mice in a vent where nothing can spare us from the stink. Yuck.
(It happens every Spring.)
Oh, geez.I’m heading to Texas in April, on a camping trip to Big Bend. Note to self: keep the tent screens on at all times!
Also, check your shoes before you put them on (mainly for scorpions).
I’d take a tarantula any day over a black widow. I’m not a big fan of spiders but I had this small chubby spider build a small nest in the back of my mail box last spring. It was kind of cute. It never bothered me and just hung out at the back in it’s web so I let it alone figuring it would eat other bugs. It was there a couple of weeks when one day I went to get the mail about 30 minutes after it had been delivered and when I opened the box the entire space was filled with a web and there was a big fat black widow hanging right in the opening. I slammed to box closed and freaked out for a second. I then got a long stick and used it to chase out the black widow and scraped out all of it’s web. The cute little spider was gone too so I assume the black widow ate it. Ever since then, I won’t get my mail after dark and always check out the interior of the mail box before I put my hand in it. Got to love living in Texas!
At least it is outside and a generally docile tarantula (as long as you don’t scare it and cause it to fling its irritating abdomen hairs at you.)
I had no idea they flung hairs! ????
Mod R,
Only “New World” tarantulas have evolved urticating hairs.
One is *strongly* urged to wash hands after playing with a New World tarantula for that very reason.
In east Texas, we have Wolf Spiders instead of Tarantulas. Though, my Mom always said our wolf spiders were puny in comparison to the monsters they grew in Colorado when she was a kid.
I guess we can’t claim EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas (except our tall tales).
One hundred huge spiders on a wall vs. answering questions asked by husband doing taxes
Classic Hobson’s Choice.
i will take the husband doing taxes any day of the week!!!
That could be on a door handle and you wouldn’t know until you were both like “ACK! CONSENT BEFORE TOUCHING!”
Ooh, that would be a good joke. Two doorbells side-by-side. One a nice normal doorbell with a sign that says “friends and family”. Another one that looks like a tarantula that says “everyone else”. Or maybe, “everyone else, move tarantula to ring doorbell”. And then not have a doorbell behind it.
I live in Arizona. We spray bug poison around our house and our backyard fence every other month. We kill any survivors we find. This is because locally we have scorpions, black widows and brown recluse spiders; all are varying degrees of venomous.
After your explanation of your Texas tarantulas, I might let them live outdoors but definitely not inside my home. I am not sure my husband would agree to a cease fire for any arachnid, be they environmentally helpful or otherwise. He does not cherish spiders or scorpions of any size.
well i found a hornet’s nest in my garage 🙂
Yikes! Hope the removal gets there quickly!
At least there are sprays that you can shoot at hornets nests from several feet away so you can get a running start if you miss or some make it out alive and come after you.
I once watched a group of semiferal barn cats play what appeared to be hockey with a tarantula on a polished concrete floor of a Texas aircraft hanger. It was fast & furious and I’m not sure who won before the “puck” escaped.
Aaarrgh! I’d have to burn the house. Nothing else would do. Of course, I might have done that back when you were dealing with the scorpions.
I’ll stay here in Florida and ride out the occasional hurricane, thank you very much.
Many people keep tarantulas as pets. My dad had one named Theodore
What a great name for a tarantula! ???? made me smile! (And btw, I’m really scared of spiders)
I know why I won`t move away from germany. No big or venomous creppy crawlys here *shudder*
Pretty good compared to yours. And before Australia calls you to move there— remember that the saying about Australia is be careful it will try to kill you. Google actress Melissa McCarthy and the illness she got whole in Australia. Keep thinking about other places to move to.
I am fine with spiders. But hard pass on the scorpions, roaches, centipedes, worms, lizards, snakes etc.. inside the house.
I have a suicidal cottontail that had babies somewhere in my backyard. Suicidal because if my 18lb dog catches it, she’s a goner, but she still insists on hiding under the bushes in my backyard!! Every now and then, my boy chases her around the yard until she hides again (giving me a heart attack every time) .
Yesterday I saw a baby bunny (about the size of my hand) right near my backdoor. Thankfully the puppers didn’t see it and we didn’t let him out until baby bunny went and hid somewhere again (his first hiding place behind the pots was giving me palpitations).
🙂
Aaarrrggghhh! * hyperventilating*
NO.
Arachnophobe, here. Its one of the reasons why, though born in a Caribbean island (Trinidad. Carried to the UK aged 3 by parents) I rarely visit.
I can take snakes, lizards, scorpions, even. All of which I’ve seen.
But spiders……
I’d have been carted off in an ambulance after keeling over in a dead faint.
You guys are BRAVE.
Marsha,
I suppose every creepy crawly has its supporter, so I stand up for the spiders of the world and say, “Spiders are so cool!”
The way they have evolved to hunt in and make use of so many terrains: web weavers, trapdoor spiders, jumping spiders, crab spiders, so many kinds!
I love looking at spider photos, such variety in color, shape, and eye number ????.
Some spiders are downright beautiful: the garden/orchard orb weavers, peacock jumping spiders, the carved block abdomen of trapdoor spiders (what art).
Once you learn how awesome they are, fear gives way.
If you dig around on YouTube, there’s a video montage of peacock jumping spiders dancing to “Stayin’ Alive.” Once you’ve seen that, it’s hard to be scared of them.
And now I see there’s a “YMCA” version, which is at least as good.
New Zealand would be good and beautiful and full of hobbits. But still last month NZ had massive storm that knocked out roads. Small communities still isolated because roads still out.
It’s *lurking* by the opening door! Right. There. Lying in wait!
I’m team fire+move.
My husband used to run in the mornings in Little Rock and he never got used to seeing tarantulas running around before full light.
Well, now I’m never moving to Texas.
The other year my wife looked through a front window of our house here in south Florida and called me over thinking we had a bat clinging to a wall. As a science/nature person it was up to be me to figure out what it was.
“Ascalapha odorata” known at the “black witch” moth. I’d never seen one before. Very cool though.
What a good morning you have.
Come up to the cold north. We got auroras, no tarantulas
That’s a fabulous tourism jingle! ????
I finished doing my taxes today (oh, joy!), but even that is better than a tarantula… I’m not ashamed of saying I’m mortally afraid of arachnids…Thankfully there’s nothing like that in Rio de Janeiro…
In SLC right now we’re all complaining that we’re going to get more snow on Thursday, even though it’s almost APRIL, but… I’ve never woken up to a giant tarantula on my door, so yeah. I’m good. Yay for snow!!! ❄️❄️❄️
Oh, Jeez!!!! I can’t believe the size of that creature!! Holy Cow!! Yeah, I’m NOT even visiting Texas. The flower picture is pretty, the tarantula, not in my life. I have little bitty ones, I don’t mind them, those big guys? No, No, NO.
Well it is raining again here in the Bay Area, which unfortunately mean’s probably more damage as we have had so much water in such a short time. Other then that all my kids are home plus one of our nieces s that is great!
I don’t mind the spiders here in San Antonio but the wind and pollen are kicking my butt today.
The bluebell field is wonderful, the tarantulas, not so much. Why do they want to come into the house? Why?
This reminds of when hubby and I were stationed in Okinawa, Japan (also humid sub-tropical like your region of Texas), and we had snails….lots and lots of snails. As small as a 5 year’s thumb nail, and as large as a Stanley lunchbox. In the yard grass, on the walkways, and all.over.the.house.outside walls.
shudder.
Thank goodness for hungry geckos…..
We decorate our houses so nicely and fill them with snacks, no wonder all these guests want to come in ????
Wow!
hahaha – what a morning surprise…gotta love those guys (nope). We’re in Tennessee, the land of the Brown Recluses and we live in the woods so we are in their territory. We understand spider land. I’ll take snakes over spiders any day!!!
That’s right! I would rather no legs, then eight!
Wait till one chases you, that’s always a fun time
Nope. I would have to set the house on fire, leave the country and never return. Picture me crossing Texas off the list of places to visit…
Thank you for making me feel better that I still have feet of snow on the ground here in Vermont. All furry nightmares remain frozen.
Aw, he looks so sweet! Hee! And they jump.
I did not want to learn about the jumping and the throwing of hairs! ????
Oh my gosh…..kill it then move no way wd I sleep s as t all ever…..btw just listening to GA One Fell Sweep…at the fart gun scene
Australia is a beautiful place to live. Most of the time the wildlife are unsuccessful at killing the population. The climate is lovely and the beaches are fantastic. Filled with epic readers and fans of your work.
I am not spider friendly! The best I can do is hold in the scream, close the door and use a different door until it is gone.