Today, the one that I saw was in a totally unexpected place. It was on the floor at church on the other side of the communion rail creeping toward one of the children in our church as we about to receive communion. His mom and I saw it at the same time and looked at each other. I whispered that it was a recluse - while trying to still maintain some sort of reverence at the altar! The elder that was assisting with distribution came over and we quickly pointed out the spider and he very casually squished it.
That was just CREEPY! I was trying to maintain composure and reverence, but I was also trying to think of what I would do if he had missed! Those things are extremely fast and I knew I couldn't scream!
3 comments:
HAH! You can take a deep breath. Several of the things you've said tip me off that what you are seeing ARE NOT brown recluse.
1) Brown recluse hate people, and hate air movement. They will not live and will not go where there is alot of motion. They prefer to hide. So, it's EXTREMELY unlikely to find one just casually wandering across an open space.
2) They are small, the size of quarter or smaller. If it's over a 1/2 inch, it's NOT a recluse.
3) The violin marking is NOT a reliable identifier.
4) Recluse do not spin visible webs.
5) A recluse is all one color. If there are different colors visible, it ain't a recluse.
Now, take a deep breath. Here's the best part. That bite that supposedly so HORRIBLE? Many people heal from the bite with no incident. Sometimes the bite does cause problems, in which case any person with half a brain would notice LONG, LONG before it looks like an attack of a flesh-eating bateria.
Source: http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html
Recluse or not, that would have creeped me out!
Not sure I could have contained my girls either -- I have three of them, too! They are very perceptive and watch momma closely, so chances are if I noticed it they would too!
Hmm.... A spider is a spider, right? Be glad you do not have an inquisitive 7-year old boy. My son plays with spiders outside if I am not alert!
I have to laugh when I think of killing spiders in church. Sort of seems wrong, in a way, doesn't it?
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