Crawlies & Down Right Creepies!

Ah yes, we are slowly getting a little more used to all the new forms of life they have here that they don't have back in Canada. Like many other areas of the world in tropical zones, you have little gecko lizards both around and in your house. They are generally a good thing since they eat bugs.

This little baby one freaked Amy out when it ran passed her hand while she was doing dishes.

Now, so much for the cute type of crawlies. These next two photos are of a Giant Wood Spider (I only know because I looked it up on the internet) that lives about 14ft up a tree in our backyard. The much smaller spiders (that I roasted with a can of WD40 and a lighter) in our front yard were kind of gross, but this one truly gave me the willies when I first saw it. I'd say it is a solid 5 inches in diameter, maybe close to 6 inches. Of course, I'm not about to climb up there and find out :)  Apparently they're known for making the biggest webs of any spider, with really strong silk.  It's pretty amazing the diversity of life, creepy or not! To make creepy things less creepy, Amy and I will often name a critter with a human name...a little 'humanizing' something that is not human can do wonders. In fact the local rat  (Dale) could almost become the family pet. So, I officially named this spider "Wilson".

For all of those who might be concerned about the giant spiders of Indonesia eating our children, you can quit worrying. I'm always looking for any spider who needs to be liquidated in our yard. Wilson is way up a tree and doesn't go anywhere.  So, for now he's alive and minding his own business (actually, the females are the big ones, so Wilson is actually a Mrs. with a guy name...She got named before I knew her gender). And as far as dealing with Mrs. Wilson, a small shotgun should do the job if I need to put the family pet down :)

The boys playing out front. As you can see from Luke's face (3rd photo down) he wasn't terribly excited about spending a 1/2 hour outside. But they eventually had fun!