Unexpected Houseguests

We've had a couple unexpected guests since we moved in, most notably the arachnid sort. We hadn't been here long when Hannah found a redback spider in our garage. Of course, this discovery generated much excitement for the entire family as redbacks are said to be the second most dangerous spider species in the country. After much discussion, photo-taking, and careful peering at her (we knew the spider was of the feminine sort because females have the characteristic red markings), we decided that the logical thing to do with our dangerous find was to capture her alive so we could anesthetize her and bring her back to the USA encased in glass, kind of like a spider paper weight. We did succeed in capturing her, but she died before anesthetization could take place. (Of course, she would die since we left her in captivity while we went to New Zealand for 2 weeks.) Incidentally, redbacks are related to black widow spiders.

A few weeks later, while fetching our mail, I discovered a huntsman spider - inside our mailbox! For about 3 days, he made our mailbox his abode, until the temperatures soared one day, the tin box likely got a little too toasty, and he moved on. To this day, I still carefully inspect the mailbox before I retrieve the mail. (note: I don't actually know if the huntsman was a he or a she, but for the sake of variety, I'll say he. Besides, huntsman does sound masculine.)

The third spider wasn't actually a houseguest. We almost ran into her, quite literally, while hiking in Morialta Reserve just east of Adelaide. After some web searching, no pun intended, I determined she was a golden orb weaver, female. She was a large beautiful specimen, almost as long as my hand.

photo credits: Hannah took photos of the hunstman and redback.