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| spider eat spider |
Our house is full of spiders at this time of year, but this is one way their numbers are whittled down.
We have no issue with having spiders around...the alternative is to have an abundance of flying insects, which is infinitely more annoying. At least the spiders just get on with their own business and don't get up in your face all the time!
There are two main species or genus in our house - the house spider (Tegenaria) and the cellar spider (sometimes known as the daddy long legs spider, although personally we reserve that name for the Crane fly)...
This photo shows a cellar spider predating on a house spider, as is their wont...the house spider is thicker in the leg and a little hairy looking, and looks squat and strong, compared to the long, skinny, feeble looking legs and body of the cellar spider...and yet cellar spiders regularly prey on house spiders, and not the other way around!
It's as though Jason Statham is easily taken out by Stephen Merchant, through the careful application of lanky limbs (and possibly a sharp wit).
This cellar spider is fairly large, with a leg span of about 2 inches, and it was hiding on the side of the toilet cistern this morning.
It's notable that the cellar spider proliferates at certain times, when it has a lot of young, and for a while our bathroom will be teeming with them...but then their numbers gradually diminish (coincidentally?!), just as two or three of them get really big in the body...and of course their growth rate is directly correlated with the amount of prey they consume...
I'll leave you to work out what's going on there!
In other news, one of the more disturbing elements of both living in the country, and cat ownership, is the extensive killing that you have to witness...
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| deadvol3 II (or is it III?) |
This morning, Loz had only been out for two minutes when she unceremoniously dumped the large, very pregnant female vole, twitching and choking, on the floor in the doorway.
Momentarily, the poor little mite gave up and passed over, but just to add a final flourish of horror to the situation, for a few seconds I could see the young writhing in her belly...
Not the most pleasant way to start the day...
Finally, brighter news - the BirdZombie has today been flown back to England, and by now he should be in Nottingham Burns Unit...we'll be taking a trip up there tomorrow to see how he is...
So far, our worst fears have not been realised - here's hoping things continue in that vein...
:-)
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