Friday 22 December 2006

Wandering white-tails

Last night was Melbourne's warmest night on record for 40 years or so. The temperature only dropped to 27C. This explains not only why I had difficulty sleeping but why I spent part of the night dealing with the biggest concentration of white-tailed spiders (Lampona sp.) I've ever encountered. The bloody things were not only wandering all over the house but moving quite rapidly, which made them tricky to trap.

Some of them were whoppers too—as far as white-tailed spiders go. (None of them, of course, was as big as the huntsman in the letter box. You can hear the patter of his eight feet when he scuttles over the mail. Although I like spiders, I don't want to hear them. That's just not right.)

I'm going to keep a few of the peripatetic white-tails for photography, then I'll let them all go in the garden. (After a stern talking to about trespassing.) Here's an earlier post about their undeserved reputation.