Monday, July 20, 2009

Arizona Fauna---Should I have warned Kristin??


So something I take for granted in Arizona is some of the native fauna. Apparently Kristin (even though she is used to the hordes of Blackwidows in California) is not a big fan of our wonderful Wolf Spiders. She was, I will admit, duly impressed by how well they jump when running across carpet (Wolf Spiders don't "crawl" on carpet..then jump, like little grasshoppers..only faster.) :)
Anyway, being as our house was empty for several months, and had a doggy door from previous owners that was not fully closed when we moved in, it was bound to collect a few house guest...which we are slowly moving to the backyard..(I personally never kill wolf spiders, best pest control ever, I used to collect them from my neighbors yards and keep them in mine...never sprayed for pesticide and never had roach/cricket problems, unlike my neighbors in the old neighborhood. By the way, these are 5 inch base boards...he was about 2 inches end to end...not the biggest we have seen but the best picture of one Mackenzie got).

Anyway, I think the spiders she could handle...but it was upon finding this wonderful specimen that she was not happy about. (Made worse by the fact that she found it on one of our pillows in the master bedroom...of coarse the pillow was on the floor the night before...still that didn't help her disposition).
This my friends is the Arizona Bark scorpion...nasty little buggers...I guess I forgot to mention to Kristin that Arizona is famous for its scorpions...I do not think she was the least bit excited to see it..though the kids and I had a blast playing with it. (Mackenzie in the end killed the poor thing with poison...whether the poisoned killed it or it drown in the poison because she must of filled the cup up with half an inch of spray...we will never know). Normally scorpions do not like being in houses....I have a feeling this one was a guest from before we moved in. Anyway..exciting times...I'm thinking for my poor wife's sake, I may need to rethink my position on never using pest control.

4 comments:

Dale said...

That's funny. I was amazed at the creatures we found in El Paso. Scorpions kind of creeped me out. As to the spiders, just be careful not to step on a pregnant one. The explosion of live baby spiders is something (you never want) to behold.

Lisa P said...

Does anyone else feel itchy all of a sudden? Yeesh, I say kill the wolf spiders and live with the crickets. Just a thought.

Katie L. said...

Wow, I must say I love pest control. Well worth the investment. We have black widows, june bugs, and fire ants, and I'll take em all over that scorpion.

Tamara said...

Kristin, i think wolf spiders and scorpions are good enough of an excuse to move it on out here to Dallas. Who's with me?