It's the time of year when little critters that belong outside start waking up and finding their way inside.
As I was unpacking my suitcase I noticed a small spider skittering away. I felt bad for the little guy, as he was obviously quite lost and, if he hitched a ride from Seattle, far from home. Yet, as sorry as I was feeling, I was not quite ready to have him as a roommate. The quick and easy solution to my problem was to grab something heavy and smash him. But that always seems so senseless and cruel. It's not like he knows any better, and it hardly seems fair to kill him because he isn't aware he's trespassing...
So I do what I always do... try to take him back outside.
But first I had to find him. This involved ten minutes of tearing apart my bedroom and chasing the fastest spider on earth. But eventually I managed to catch him under a glass and slide a card beneath. Once caught, he didn't put up much of a struggle, and sat there motionless on the card awaiting his fate.
Which was to be put on a nice shrub just outside the building where, hopefully, he'll be happy.
In a world where it is increasingly more common to kill a life than save it... where it's far easier to destroy something than to create it... it's the little things like this that help me feel better about my place in the grand scheme of things.
Even though a bird probably flew in and ate my spider two minutes after I set him outside.
I prefer to think that he spun up a nice web and is even now picking out wallpaper and curtains for his new home.
See, now I can do that w/ every bug BUT a spider.
I usually catch normal bugs WITH MY BARE HANDS, and set them back outside. I could probably even do that w/ a cockroach (if I had them inside my house, which I don't.)
But, a SPIDER??
EEK!! Bring me a heavy book, ASAP!! I can't even sleep in a room if there's a spider in it. I can't go near a spider. Just easier to dispatch them to spider heaven. *shudder*
We have a clear plastic cup and a card that came with some software for my Apple ][ computer as our "bug trap". They all go outside.
If they're particularly funky (large or mb dangerous looking) I put them across the street in an open field. ;)
We have these super smart little "jumping spiders" that seem extremely conscious of their surroundings. They're the trickiest to catch.
For years now my wife does the same and she was brought up with the 'smash it if it moves' concept in childhood (yet another of those little things passed on between generations). I hear her coaxing them into the cup now and then and laugh at how she is now far more adept at the capture than I!
Posted by Kapha on April 16, 2007 | Reply
see, now I would totally take them outside if they weren't the size of my hand and I wasn't too afraid to get anywhere near them. Seriously, they grow them pretty big in Taiwan. But I am too afraid so they don't make it outside...I don't crush them, but I'll spare the details of the poor suckers fate.
Good on you. Seriously. I can't kill bugs/spiders either, preferring to relocate them. Someone killed a huntsman at church once by squishing it with his foot and I was horrified. Practically broke down in tears right then and there. And to this day I've never been able to respect that guy.
That really is good of you. I'm just not sure if I could manage saving a spider, they're too scary for me.
Posted by Geeky Tai-Tai on April 17, 2007 | Reply
This reminds me of a previous Blogography post. I think it was a long time ago, but I remember you mentioning your refusal to kill bugs (or ANYTHING) in relation to your Buddhist beliefs. It made me realize I will never be a true Buddhist as long as I continue to swat flies.
I loved spiders much more before one of their bites made me sick for a week and left a permanent scar on my leg. Now I fear them.
Woot! I try to never kill any bugs either, and as SOOOO much as I hate spiders, I save them too. (Or beg the boyfriend to do it if they're big)
I was painting yesterday and looked down to see a huge bee sinking in my paint bucket. The more I tried to get him out, the more he sunk. I ended up having to squish him in there so he wouldn't suffer and paint-drown. :( It put a dark cloud over my whole day.
Well, if a bird ate it, then the spider took it's rightful place in the circle of life.
Hakuna Matata!
Posted by Myleen on April 17, 2007 | Reply
"[...]grab something heavy and smash him."
Well, that used to be my approach, especially if the little eight-legged bastard had the gall to appear in my kids' room, but the girls would look at me with so much sorrow (the horrah! The horrah!) that I eventually let them handle it.
And the way they handle it, the spider ends up outside, all right, but missing a leg or two from the tender mercies administered by inept young hands.
Thus do I get my petty vengeance.
Here is my dilemma. What do you do with spiders and the like when it is winter? You can't put them outside, or they will die. You can't put them elsewhere in the house, or they will eventually find you again. You could potentially put them in a shed or barn if there is one available.
So what do you do?
lol! it's so sweet that you saved the spider. I feel bad killing insects too. :)
Posted by webmiztris on April 17, 2007 | Reply
Troy: Easy! Just use a separate ice cube tray and cryogenically freeze them until Spring, then scatter the cubes on the lawn - et voila!
j/k! ;)
I've often been stuck in this dilemma. I either put them in a house plant and don't tell anyone, or put them outside along the edge of the house so they can at least find reasonably warm shelter. Only way I've figured out so far.
Always a bit of a problem when a spider shows up a few days later and my wife says: "This spider looks *just* like the one we had in the cup to go outside a couple of days ago."
:D
Posted by Kapha on April 18, 2007 | Reply
Once in NYC I saw a moth trying to get out of a puddle of water. His wings were so weighted down that I could see he was going to drown so I grabbed a twig from a bush in front of my apt and tried for about five minutes to get him to settle on it. He eventually did and I picked him up and set him down in the bushes.
As I stood up one of the bus drivers said, "Oh, you were trying to SAVE it." It galled me that he thought I would have spent 5 minutes trying to kill a moth. In New York City. Where 5 minutes of inert activity can lead to a mugging. Gimme a break.
I prefer to think of that cute little spider sitting in your bushes, happily hacking into your crappy Verizon internet service to send emails to the rest of his family and discussing their move to your place as well.
Devious little f*cks. I hate spiders. "Kill 'em all!" to quote Starship Troopers. :-)
I will admit to killing a few spiders in my time. justice for the little bites i wake up with sometimes. But last summer, a few largish spiders made their home between the window panes in my bedroom so i kept that window shut and kinda watched them live. but now there's a dead spider in the window that i need to vacuum up. Spidey is no match for the Minnesota winter. and spring, occasionally.
I think there are lots of spiders in the bathroom b/c they crawl up the pipes. where i proceed to flush them down the toilet.
How about if you came home from a walk in the woods (or any grassy area) and had a tick sucking your blood? would you have mercy on that?
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