Creepy Creatures Crawling Out (10-25-10)

Tonight, Julia mentioned to me that she had seen a very scary-looking spider inside the window over the kitchen sink when she got up during the night. I tried to get her to give a description of what she saw, but all she could tell me was that it was a really scary-looking spider. I asked her if it perhaps could have been one of the Mondo spiders. No, and it wasn't a sort-of-cutish (!) one, like those we have in the yard (that would be, the huge garden spiders that have been spinning webs all over the front porch). She said the spider climbed back to a hiding place inside the opening for the window weights. As it turns out, shortly telling me about this, she called out urgently. There was the spider, dark, ominous, shiny and hourglass-shaped. All the commotion was too much for the beast; it retreated inside the window frame. I checked the web, and it was crinkly as I expected: a bona fide black widow. Crap. All we need.

Then, a few minutes later, Julia pointed out what seemed to be a small carpenter ant on the kitchen floor. Crap again.

Unrelated, Valérie called and asked if we had seen any Mondo spiders inside the house lately. I answered that we hadn't, and we both agreed that this was very suspicious.

A few hours later still, as Gary and I were sitting on the couch in the family room, checking out some garden lanterns I bought at the Goodwill Bins, which I thought would be perfect for Halloween, as I tried to wipe off one of those cloudy white spider egg sacks, a gazillion tiny eggs fell out and rolled all over the coffee table...

Aaaarrrgh!

Our Very Own Vermin!!! (05-01-10)

Here are some photos of the disgusting carpenter ants we found in the shed.

1. Beam damage; 2. Remnants of nest; 3. They're back! 4. Still trying...

But that wasn't all...

A rat's nest!

"Mondo" Spider Sightings (04-19-10)

Here is a photo of a "Mondo" spider that was hiding behind a dumpy cupboard under the carport.
Since we moved, this is the fifth time we've run into of this type of spider. We apparently are a central gathering place for these little critters...

"Mondo" Spider Sighting (04-02-10)

While I was explaining something to Julia, she started pointing at something behind me, got up from her chair and ran out of the dining room screaming. Not sure of what this was about, but suspecting it may involve some creature with more than six legs, I started running after her, also screaming. We ran around the house, from the dining room to the laundry room to the kitchen, and back to the dining room where I caught up with Julia. While we were both shrieking and jumping up and down in one place, I got enough visual information from her to realize that she had seen a huge spider crawling on the back of my pajama pants. Still shrieking, I threatened to remove my pajamas on the spot if she didn’t check if the spider was still on me (it wasn’t). I then ran to the bathroom, grabbed my hairbrush, brushed my hair (no spider), ripped my clothes off (no spider) and jumped in the shower, patting myself all over, just in case.