Okay, I admit it, I heard the quiet calls of "Bunny", but I didn't respond. I wasn't asleep, asleep, but I wasn't awake either. You know that period where you are beyond drifting off, where you can still startle yourself fully awake, but you're not yet dreaming? That's where I was. And that's where I wanted to stay. And so I did. For a while.
Matt continued quietly, "Ah, Bunny. There's a problem". He mentioned the word 'spider' but that still wasn't enough to rouse me. I knew he'd pretty much dealt with his phobia a while ago and could now go about happily (well, not exactly happily) catching and releasing any eight-legged friends that ventured into the house. But still he continued.
"Bunny, there's lots of spiders." Okay, now he had my attention. I reluctantly opened my eyes, not fully, I didn't want to become fully awake if not needed and padded across the floor. As I walked I noted one tiny, baby hunstman scurrying across it. I found Matt in the hallway, staring at the wall as a flurry of babies sprawled out and across it. Oh.
I have no idea where the egg sac was ferreted away and didn't see the mother, although with our cottage being as old as it is, there are many, MANY nooks and crannies. And it was just sheer dumb luck that Matt got up at the time to witness, 'the great dispersal'. We both grabbed containers and as you can imagine, the spider babies were fast and more agile than us in our late forties.
All up we probably caught around 30 or so hatchlings and took them outside to various spots. I accidentally caught up a Daddy Long Legs, who then caught itself a baby and proceeded to kill it and wrap it up in front of the others. Talk about a traumatic childhood!
It's been a couple of days now since the spider-apocalypse and I'm still finding bubbas - in the sink in the kitchen, in the bath and just this morning, I opened my pack of new tarot cards to find one hunkering down inside! Should be an interesting few weeks!
Hunstman hatchlings
Northern Illawarra
