12/29/2023 0 Comments Biggest spider in the worldI released the Huntsman into the grass, and Hud used some cardboard to usher it away from the garage:Ī few weeks in I began seeing Huntsman Spiders almost daily. (I would have liked to have used a box that wasn’t labeled “strong & bitey,” but it’s what I had available): It actually worked quite well, as it allowed me to keep some distance from the spider, and the plastic box was smooth enough that it kept the spider from crawling out until I could get the lid on. My solution was a broomstick with a cheese box taped to it. ![]() I struggled for minutes trying to build the nerve to just catch the spider in a box, but that meant I had to get up-close, and my weak self just wasn’t feeling great about that. Chasing this ridiculously fast critter around the garage wasn’t easy when it started walking up the lift post, I knew I had to catch it there or it’d climb up and out of my reach. This took forever - at least 30 minutes - and that’s 30 minutes I didn’t have, as the project was way behind. So I had no choice but to try to capture the eight-legged monster. I’m killing them because I find them scary? My weakness isn’t a good enough reason. It’s just hard for me to justify if they’re not particularly harmful and generally leaving me alone. Unfortunately, I cannot get myself to kill spiders, no matter how hideous they are. I had to do some work underhood, and just knowing that beast was there just wasn’t going to work for me. From the outside, I looked like a complete dork, and Laurence and his mom rightfully let me know it.Ī week or so after my initial spider encounter in the garage, when I opened up the door to start another day of work on the ute, I saw this hanging from my firewall: I tried shaking them off, but they wouldn’t let go, so I carefully carried the tarp, shaking it every now and then to prevent the leggy beasts from latching onto my hand. I looked under it to find a bunch of Huntsman Spiders. Almost as embarrassed as when my host Laurence and his mom asked me to pick up the tarp that had been sitting out in the paddock where my utes had sat for many months. ![]() The neighbor I was with, Hud Johnston (a hot-rodder whom you’ll all hear about in upcoming articles) didn’t have time for my childishness, and just reached his arm deep into the dark abyss and grabbed what needed grabbing. I can’t be reaching blindly into dark places this is Australia, after all. I recall that a few minutes later I had to reach my hand into the rear quarter panel just behind the taillights (possibly to undo an electrical connector or grab the back side of a bolt), but since it was dark in there, I walked away to get a flashlight so I could scope the place out first. Behold the mighty Huntsman Spider that was a mere inch away from my hand: ![]() If someone says ‘David, step back!’ things are about to go down.” Luckily for me, the neighbor hadn’t been shielding me from anything that could kill me, though it was definitely something that could have caused me to wet my trousers. As I was spinning the ratchet, a neighbor who’d come to visit told me to step back. The very first day I started on my project, which - along with the parts car - had sat in a field for years and thus become home to all sorts of critters, I was loosening a screw holding a disintegrated taillight housing to the rear quarter panel. For a week I wrenched knowing that a behemoth lurked in the garage near Dubbo, New South Wales, and then one day, as I walked in to try to fix the hopeless wreck I’d bought 10,000 miles from my home, the hideous beast showed up, sitting on a wall in plain sight, stretching its legs as if to boast about its enormity.īefore I get to megalodon, I should mention the many, many other large spiders I encountered in that garage in Australia, and the effects they had on my overall wrenching experience (I’d also mention the effects on my psyche, but I’ll leave that between me and a therapist). I’d gotten a quick glimpse of the gargantuan arachnid a few weeks into my project, but after turning away for just a few seconds, the thing scurried off into the darkness. “Somewhere in this garage is the megalodon of spiders,” I kept thinking as I worked on the $900 Chrysler Valiant ute I’d purchased sight unseen in Australia.
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