Well, it's been an interesting few weeks for the topic of arachnids.
Massive orb-weavers in people's gardens, spiders that build their own 'waxworks' and even Michael Jackson's untimely death and its flood of new stories gets a mention here.
Seems the king of pop may have used the cover story of a spider bite after he turned up late to a hearing as part of his child abuse trial in 2002. According to some reports, he had been injecting heroin and a needle had broken off in his leg. Ewww. Poor, misguided, mess of a guy! But spiders as an excuse? That's BAD!
It's an unusual British summer. Perhaps mainly because it has been sunny, but also because there has been a massive influx of larger spiders indoors. Our bigger arachnids tend to scurry into our houses from September onwards - usually to look for a mate.
Temperatures of +30c over past weeks have tempted some of our more fearsome spiders indoors to cool off. I've seen a plethora of tegenaria species in my house (usually seen indoors in autumn). My sister and her husband have spoken of an elongated spider they have been seeing around their house recently, and I wonder if it is maybe the woodlouse spider. I include a photo of the woodlouse spider for identification purposes in case anyone else spots it. Handle carefully though. It has a nasty nip.
Anyway, I'll sign off here with the Rory Bremner of the spider world. An arachnid that seemingly builds a double of itself in its web from detritus.
Well, if I had eight arms I'd do the same. Wouldn't you?
Photo. Woodlouse Spider. (C) Encyclopedia Brittanica
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