Spiiiiiders!

So last night the temperature got down pretty low (compared to recently). So this morning, the guys at work found a huge Oklahoma Brown Tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi) on the wall in the warehouse! Knowing I'm such a spider (esp. tarantula) freak, I couple of people sent me pictures of it. Someone was even trying to catch it for me!

I got my largest cage out of the closet, rinsed it, and put some fresh substrate in it. On my way to work it occurred to me that I probably should have taken something to catch the spider since I didn't know if they'd caught it or not. I got to work and Lia immediately took me out to the dock to find it with me. This is funny because she has arachnophobia. On our way out, we saw the cleaning guy and he asked if we were looking for it (I was, after all, carrying a cage). He pointed across the building to an Exit sign. The black spot on the top right corner? That is the spider! Holy cow, we could see it from across the warehouse! "Huge!" I thought. We got over to it and I backed a tugger cart up to the wall so I could stand on it. I put the cage up against the side of the Exit sign and slid the spider into it using the lid. I had caught it in about 2 seconds! No problem! And, it was NOT that big! Turned out to be an adult male, so he is small.

Courtney said Kelsey was the one who claimed it was as large as his fist (and he is not a small guy). When he got back from lunch and looked at my new pet, he said it wasn't the same one! He said this one is half the size! We referred back to pictures and sure enough... the one Kelsey had seen was a larger one, most likely a female! Lia and I (and then some other folks) went back out to hunt, but she was gone. I need to take all my gear to work, though. As fall blows into town, we'll likely see more of them!

I was SO giddy! And lots of people had questions about spiders and tarantulas. I love to talk about them! So it made for a great day!

I've had an Oklahoma Brown before and am keeping this little guy in the same cage. My friend let her sons catch Special K for me. I haven't named this new one yet... and I'm open to suggestions!