Excuse me, Is that a TARANTULA on my front porch?

Well, I certainly knew that when we moved to this house that my sightings of bugs would increase dramatically. We live in the country now and have 3 acres. (2 of our acres are woods). And, yes, I have seen more bugs in my 8 1/2 months of living here than I have in my entire life.

My dad calls me at 8:55 p.m. every evening. It's usually a quick phone call. He'll ask if the "bumbo boy" went to sleep ok and tell me to "get my butt in bed and get my rest." So I decided that I would sit outside on my front porch and wait on my 8:55 p.m. phone call. I love my front porch. It's very relaxing to sit at night at listen to the critters in the woods. The phone call from my dad came and went and I stayed out side a little bit longer. It was quite peaceful last night. I decide I should probably go inside and go to bed. I got up and checked on my tomato and strawberry plants. And due to us having out front porch lights on last night, there were bugs everywhere. I've gotten used to it, so I stand at the front door to make sure there are no big bugs flying around that could sneak inside when I open the door. As i'm standing there, I notice something big moving out of the corner of my eye. I freeze and slowly turn my head to this big critter. After wetting my pants, I realized it is a Tarantula.

What? A tarantula? On my front porch? I didn't sign up for this. Big bugs/spiders...yes. But, Tarantula's??? No. I did not. Can I move back to Little Rock please?

So I quietly open the door and tells Bradley he needs to come outside. He gives me the, "what is it now" look and gets up. I'm sure at this point he is thinking that it is another "big" spider...because my defination of a big spider and his defination of one is drastically different.




He looks at it, and tells me to go get my camera. What? My camera? This God awful creature is 2 feet from our front door. Let me hand you a shovel or a hammer so he can go meet his Creator. He then begins to tell me that he has never seen a spider this big, or even a tarantula in the wild. So, to please him, I go get my camera. He takes a couple pictures of it and then asks me what I want him to do with it.

Now, I'm not a bug killer. If there's a bug in my house, I'll put a cup over it to trap it...and Brad will release it when he gets home. But, when it comes to spiders...I have no compassion. They have many legs, move fast, and make those nasty webs.

I was confused. I do kill spiders, but this one was huge. There would be so much blood shed if smashed. Too much for me to handle. He says he can get a shovel and take it to the woods. Ok, I said, but how do you know he won't come back? So, he tells me to go get Parker's bug net and bug cage. Bradley's newly made friend goes into the bug box. He asks if I thought Parker would want to see it in the morning. Well, Yes, i'm sure he would love to see it. But that means that I will be the only adult at home. I'm not up for that with a huge spider.

I go to bed, knowing that this devil of a spider is trapped in a bug box and I leave it up to Brad to do what he wants with it.

He gets up for work and later comes in to tell me, "All that's left in the bug box is spider poop?" "What" I said? He replies, "All the bugs are gone and he is gone. Just his poop is left." I say, "Please tell me you left it outside last night." Fortunately for his sake, he did.

Holy Moly.