07 May 2013

Oh the stories I could tell....{creepy crawlies}

Last week we had not one but two unsavoury encounters of the close kind with some rather large creepy crawlies.

The first was this stick insect that Mark discovered on the porch when he was putting the rubbish out for the week - as thick as a real stick and as long as his hand. Shudder.


That in itself would have been enough excitement for one week.

But this guy had other plans.


We were minding our own business watching telly when Mark saw something scurrying by the curtain. Initially he thought it was a mouse (that's how big it was!) and then realised quite quickly it was a MASSIVE spider. Cue me up on the couch screaming. And then he made me go in the kitchen to fetch a container for him. How mean! I've seen a couple of other spiders this big, but only ever outdoors. How the heck did he get in the house in the first place?

I posted this pic on Facebook and Instagram and was somewhat surprised at how many comments - over 20 comments! Which were either along the lines of ...'aarggh' 'oh dear god' 'ugh gross out' 'yuck' 'eeeeek' 'eeewww', or people trying to identify the species (wolf spider, whitetail or huntsman). And I stupidly googled images of each of these spiders before going to bed.

How I didn't have nightmares about giant mutant spiders taking over the world I'll never know.

But this got me thinking about some of the other fun creepy crawly stories I could share with you....

So there was the time not that long ago that Mylo and I went to Zealandia and we were busy minding our own business peeking at the baby tuataras when I realised that I was up close and personal with another very large specimen of a spider right near my face. Did I scream! I mean just look how big he is compared to the baby tuataras which are not small!


Then there was the time when I walked in from the gate with the mail which included some junk mail rolled up like a newspaper. Once I was inside I opened up the pile and out jumped a weta at me. No surprise that I screamed and threw the whole bunch (weta and all) on the dining table as far away from me as I could.

This is not THAT weta - 
but another encounter of the close kind poor Mark had when taking the BBQ cover off one day.

Or maybe we could talk about the time when we lived in our old villa and I was busy doing some Accounting study at the table one night with bare feet in the summer and a mouse ran right over my feet? I jumped so high I hit both my knees on the table. 

Perhaps that could be topped by the time when Mylo was 6 months old and was busy crawling around on the floor and I suddenly heard a crunching noise that sounded very out of place. I went over to investigate and discovered him merrily chewing on a snail which I then had to fish out his mouth in pieces whilst trying not to gag all the while.


But I think the one that probably takes the cake was one night in our old villa (which was surrounded by native bush) when I had half a dozen girl friends over for life group and a massive rat ran in the house. All of us were up on our chairs before you could say 'rat!'. We shut ourselves in the lounge while poor Mark tried to catch it. A little mouse running around is one thing but a rat is pretty darn robust. I'll never forget when Mark had it trapped up against the wall with an ice cream container trying to stop it from moving (he was applying a fair amount of pressure) and it started squealing like a baby pig. Dear God.

How about you? Do you have any nerve-shuddering creepy crawly stories that have always stuck with you?? Do share - if you're not too traumatised that is!


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8 comments :

Ange - Tall, Short and Tiny said...

I am still shuddering about that spider picture. Ugh.
I think I've already mentioned my spider-in-my-bed incident (http://tallshortandtiny.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/inside-my-head/), but another time, coffee morning at my house, I looked over at 12mo Tiny sitting in the corner of the room and wondered where he'd found some chocolate...on closer inspection it was a spider leg on his chin, and he was sucking away on another part of it! It was dead before he sampled it, but there were five women trying not to vomit that morning!

jacksta said...

I have more of a rat and mice phobia...bug in NZ aren't very poisonous...so not that scared of them. Probably the reason we wont live in oz!

Miriam said...

I am SO a screamer too! :o)

Leonie said...

Not a fan of creepy crawlies - but not quite a screamer - unless it drops on my lap (and then I would like to think it's more about getting a fright? :p) I have one really bad incident as a child with a humongous spider but I am happy to report I'm not too scarred and am living to tell the tale :)

Renee said...

Ewww!! This post has given me the creepies!! I can't even handle all the praying mantis around here!! I would have passed out from fright if i had encountered any of your critters!! (Especially that spider at Zealandia!)

Leonie said...

we had a LOT of large creepy crawlies in Oz. Spiders the size of my hand - not a lie. Big ants (that had a nasty bite).
But I was waaaaay more terrified of snakes... shudder.

Neetz said...

ewwww stuff that!!! (to every single one of those examples you shared!!) (shudder).

Bron said...

eeek sorry I read this right before bedtime. LOL

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