Meet Mr. T

We were excited to meet Jen and the kids at her new house this afternoon. Sitting out at poolside Ken noticed a Tarantula crawling out from the edge of the pool, like he had been trying to figure out how to get a drink of water. He mentioned it to the boys who immediately were fascinated by the giant spider. They had seen the last blog and hadn't thought about them actually being so close to one. Well . . . they played with "Mr. T." for a good forty-five minutes, and would check on him several times throughout the rest of the afternoon. KL came to see it and she wasn't one bit interested to get anywhere near it, and was quite content to head back up to the barn where she dreams of having a horse to spend time with someday.

CD was first to see it. He loves watching and caring for any insect. He wanted to find a jar to keep it in. We advised him to just enjoy it in its natural habitat because it is a bit big to keep housed in a jar. CD was satisfied with that answer and loved just watching it. He got brave after watching his brother with what they lovingly called "Mr. T." for, of course, "Mr. Tarantula."

These spiders crack me up. When they get a bit agitated they make themselves look real big by straightening up their legs and standing tall. That hairy part which looks like his rump sticking up in the air is actually his abdomen. See notes below as to why it's bald!

Some interesting facts about these creatures:
• Tarantulas are harmless to humans and can be trained as pets.
• The Tarantula spins no web but catches its prey by pursuit.
• They have eight eyes all clustered together.
• There are more than 800 species of Tarantulas.
• In the Fall, males locate a receptive female by the scent she leaves on the silk of her burrow, and after performing a courtship dance, mates.
• Males usually die a few months after mating, but females may live and produce eggs for 25 years or more. It may die a natural death or be eaten by the female, sometimes even before mating can occur.
•The tarantula is a nocturnal hunter. It does not spin a web to capture its prey, but catches food by speed. It will virtually eat anything of the right size that moves within range, but feeds primarily on small insects like grasshoppers, beetles, sow bugs, other small spiders, and sometimes small lizards.
• A conspicuous bald spot seen on the abdomen of many tarantulas (notice Mr. T's bald spot) results from the spider's defensive behavior against its vertebrate enemies. When confronted, the spider will rub its hind legs over its body, brushing off irritating hairs into an enemies eyes. These hairs are replaced during each successive molt.

Both boys were pretty anxious to pick it up and felt more comfortable trying to do so after they donned the gloves their mom brought out to them. The tarantula at first had no interest at all and moved quite quickly to get out of the way.

With their mom's gardening gloves on they were brave enough to coax Mr. T. to crawl up onto their gloved hand.

JD was quite patient because the tarantula crawled very slowly when he'd approach it with the gloved hand, and he was pretty excited when Mr. T. felt comfortable enough to crawl onto his hand.

After JD lost interest, it was CD's turn to try to get the tarantula to crawl onto his hand. I think the tarantula was just plain tuckered out by then and had no interest to do much of anything anymore!

It was loads of fun for me to stand back and watch and catch the images to share with you. There's no way I wanted to pick that thing up, that's for sure!

Life is good . . .
especially when I can share it with my grandchildren!