Now that the word is out there that the tiny casa is an arachnid nirvana the hordes have been popping in to visit with a few overstaying their welcome. The old tiny casa had oodles of spiders as well (don't tell my sister though, she's not a fan) and most of those spiders were of the same family. You know the kind...the delicate dudes with the small bodies and long legs that liked to get their sauna on in the shower. The new tiny casa however seems to be a cruise ship destination and the variety is astounding.
Often the ceiling in the living room it a favorite destination for dark jumpy types. They tend to camp out and camouflage themselves into looking like a raisin which is silly because for one, we're not raisin eaters and two, why would a raisin be stuck to the ceiling? Oftentimes I will spot it and think "Is it dead?" and then a few days later it has moved a smidge or two in another direction. If I look up again and notice it gone moments later, I am certain it is sneaking up on me and I have to do a thorough search of the sofa to make sure it isn't up to mischief.
You might wonder why we don't go all smoosh-crazy and smetimes we wonder as well but really, the only other insect problem we have is ants. Ants really like the tiny casa when it is wet outside. Ants do not get the same consideration as the spiders do, ants get smooshed or vacuumed and the whole time I'm smooshing and vacuuming I'm apologizing. One or two here or there is fine but when the masses move in the vacuum comes out. Recently however I've been smooshing some singles as a two weeks ago they were getting a bit bitey and I'm just not into that.
And now I am rambling and you may be wondering what the heck do chickens have to do with spiders and other than both of them residing in our bathroom, nothing. Oh no, not real cluckers mind you, faux fowl. If you know me at all you will know of my fondness for chickens (and now it seems, spiders). In our tiny bathroom above the twahlet hangs a pallet shelf mister hammered together when we first moved in. On the pallet shelf resides a platoon of chickens in a variety of mediums; featherd, ceramic, chalkware, plastic, you name it...
The other night I stepped into the tiny bathroom to brush my teeth when I noticed the large resident spider was no longer in residence under the sink a smidge and next to the mouthwash. I gave my toothbrush a good tap to rid it of water, tucked it back into the squirrely mug in the cabinet and turned around to leave and startled. We had a new resident spider much larger and long legged than the last and this one was socializing with the chickens. Like I have previously stated we don't get all smoosh crazy here and generally, we leave the arachnid army alone but when said arachnids are quite large and in a location that is a perfect launch pad for landing on our persons we tend to take offense and remove the critters using something not unlike the bee catcher aka cricket catcher. I alerted the mister with a hearty laugh (okay, maybe a yelp) and he arrived with a wee empty yogurt container and our cable bill. As he gently tried to coax the critter into the container without damaging any critter-limbs the darn critter kept zipping this-way and that. One by one, mister kept handing me chickens which really were in need of a good dusting, and tried to get closer to the very large, extremely quick and now pretty agitated arachnid.
By this time I am in the doorway of the tiny bathroom and mister is facing me as he is attempting the delicate procedure when suddenly the damn thing jumps off the shelf and straight at the mister. With a squawk and a bok, the mister jumps back and does a little dance asking m if the critter is on him. It is not and I'm certain I did not see it jump but mister swears it did. We admit defeat and go back to whatever it was we were doing. The mister returns to the computer to see if he can solve the mystery of our very sick hard drive (knock on wood) and I return to the washing and dusting off of chickens. Though there was a moment when I looked at mister again and thought I saw the critter ON him and I might have "eeped" which made the mister jump like a fool and I felt so bad but I laughed so hard.
After the chickens were dried and um...photographed I moseyed on back to the bathroom only to discover the return of the very large and extremely quick arachnid. He or she was camping out on the bottom shelf next to the chicken puzzle and when I called out to mister to return with the catcher she or he tried to pick a fight with me as I removed the remaining chickens from the the shelf. Man, that critter was super speedy...wait, no, that critter was super-dee-duper speedy. Eeps!
Eventually the damn thing was liberated to the front lawn. Mister began to carry it out to the street but I hollered it should be placed near the pots and plants so that it might find sustenance on whatever chewy insect was decimating my plants. Mister hollered back that it will just return to it's roost and I stood there in the doorway laughing as we hollered over where to free the very large and extremely quick visitor from another world.
