With a little prodding, I was able to get the little buggers ID.
I initially left him/her/it alone but then realized that it probably wasn't a good idea leaving a poisonous spider on my doorstep, and gave it the boot.
It's funny, but it's little things like that that really make me realize that I'm not in Kansas (or Canada) anymore. The heat, the humidity? Annoying, but they don't really stand out, for some reason (I notice them, of course. They just don't scream to me: "Hey! You're in Arkansas!") Ditto for the accents. The wildlife, however, is another matter. The other night I also found this lovely specimen in my backyard.
The strange part is that I was more disturbed by the katydid than the black widow. Bugs of all type (spiders especially) creep me out, but I was all "Kewl! A black widow in MY house!"
Also saw a flock of vultures on the side of the road, something else that I'd never seen live before. Huge birds. Honestly though, I don't know how armadillos aren't an endangered species yet. You can practically measure you driving distance by counting the dead ones on the road.
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Hee! I remember long road trips with my family where we'd be able to estimate our location by identifying the road kill... "Haven't seen a deer for a while; only armadillos... hey, a pig! We must be in Florida!"
(don't ask me why we only ever saw roadkill pigs in Northern Florida. It is a strange place).
We've got black widows in our garage here. They seem shy, at least, so I've just got to remember to tap and then shake out anything that's been stored there before I use it. Don't go stickin' yer hand anywhere you can't see... a useful rule of life. :)
You know....
It's really not selling me on the whole... I don't know... come visit me and my venomous houseguests thing.
Is there cake at least? I will do terrible, terrible things for cake.
Heh. When I first got down here I actually did shake out my shoes in the morning etc. But after a couple of months of not finding anything I stopped. I might have to pick up that habit again.
I also finally saw my first live armadillo today. Kinda cute little bugger, no bigger than a small house cat, snuffling around on the road. Too bad he was probably roadkill before I got a mile past him.
And yes, anybody who comes down to visit me gets free cake. And cookies. And cheesecake. And chocolate. And pretty much anything else that they want me to make.
...but what's really strange is that I was just talking about these very same critters today. Gik.
What's wrong with katydids? They're kind of pretty, as far as bugs go.
Nothing wrong with Katydids, per say, until they start to get 2 inches long or larger.
As I said, I'm not a huge fan of bugs.
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