Saturday, July 30, 2011

Cry Wolf

I was laying under my trailer grinding clean patches on the frame so I could weld on brackets for my new water tank. As I looked up through the shower of sparks at the floor above, I could see a movement to one side. I stopped grinding as a large Wolf Spider ran across the floor directly over my face…around the edge of the frame it went and disappeared out of sight. Naturally I went back to grinding…
Later I took this photo of the juvenile spider sitting on the mudguard. When I looked away to change camera settings it disappeared without trace.






A few weeks later as I packed to go camping, the spider made an appearance as it leisurely walked across the floor as I was putting gear in…I was obliged to wait for it to cross.
Here we are another six months on and the spider still lives on my trailer somewhere, it’s been all over the state and shared the trailer with me as a bed on several trips. It’s been out bush with the motor bikes many times and lately back and forth with loads of house furniture as my daughter moves house. The trailer is still at my daughters, and today as I walked past it I noticed the spider sitting in the sun, soaking up all the heat it could on this otherwise cool day. It turns out it’s female (the males are smaller) and she’s getting to be quite a big spider now.
An apparently dangerous spider living in complete harmony with a large group of people?
You hear about Australia being full of dangerous animals but you don’t hear that most of them don’t want to interact with people at all… except for Crocodiles ..obviously! and Black snakes.. Sharks.. Box Jellyfish.. Tiger snakes…er! (I think I’ll shut up now)



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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

that is a lucky spider. I'd take the photo (beautiful, by the way) and then viciously and unremorsefully kill it.

Spiral said...

I wuv the cute widdle spideys!

Neo said...

ok, having stared death in the face, another long story, I'm not afraid of much... spiders are in that category, though I do find them to be quite interesting creatures.

who said...

I could be mistaken, but as far as I know (in terms of quantity in general as opposed to a specific length of distance):

close only counts in horse shoes, and as much as I love horse, any and all shadows must be synchronized at any given point in time as represented as a legitimate snapshot of said time for a picture to be considered authentic.

Has the shadoscity of your image been verafied by a third party?

Kal said...

That freak deserves the bottom of my shoe. I hope it crunches as I grind his exoskeleton to dust.

Adorabibble said...

I really like spiders.

Windsmoke. said...

Don't mind spiders as long as they stay out of the way, i mainly have daddy long legs, haven't seen a huntsman or wolf spider for many years, they must have good hiding spots :-).

Tempo said...

@Starzyia, Hi and welcome, thats a common reaction for most people, but I dont mind them at all. They dont really do much damage and having been bitten by a smallish one I can say that the bite is not good...but no that bad either.

@Spiral, Nice aren't they... I guess you see some pretty cool ones up where you are? Some people are happy enough to handle them but I'm not that game.

Hi Neo, Very interesting creatures eh? I'm happy to have them around...except for Red Backs which I just dont like.. These spiders are quite nice really...

@Who, Hi and welcome aboard, all our shadows are checked but the guy that usually does it is away just now...so... it wasn't done this week.

Hi Kal, Not a good idea my friend... they see the shoe coming, run out of the way then jump on your shoe and try to bite you.. no kidding. Theyre really fast and (for some reason) get nasty when you try to kill them.

Hi Adorabibble, Not so bad are they.. Live and let live I say.

@Windsmoke, Theyre out there, you just dont see them.. many times Ive seen them on trees only when they move...and I've seen some BIG ones over the years. The largest would stand neatly on your open flat hand..hate to be bitten by one that big though.

Anonymous said...

Hi Tempo,
If this spider had of been at my place, it would of never seen another day.

Tempo said...

Oh but Mags...they really dont do any harm...unless you piss them off eh!

Sarah said...

having been mocked by a spider in my shower before, I am inclined to be less than kind with them when I see them.

My hubby is a buddhist at heart...he kills them inside, but feels remorseful for days afterwards.

Tempo said...

Hi Sarah, I have had to kill a couple of them, sometimes they attack and just wont back off. I dont fully understand why they do this but if they wont back off you have to either kill them or run away squealing like a kid... Yeah, I feel remorseful too.

Argentum Vulgaris said...

Tempo, a disaster, check: http://av1labyrinth.blogspot.com/

AV

KaLynn ("MiMi") said...

I didn't know wolf spiders were dangerous! We have them here in Texas and I just move around them. I figure they kill bugs I don't like so just leave them alone.

Thanks for the info!

Tempo said...

@ KaLynn, Theyre not really dangerous but like any large spider they carry enough venom to make you quite sick for a few days. Of course they dont seek human company so tend not to bite many people.