Out of the Woodwork

It's finally summer here, and I love the hot, sunny weather. Apparently, so do the insects and spiders.

In the last few weeks we have had lots of little black beetles emerge from the wood trim in our house. One day, we suddenly noticed lots of these little guys crawling out from perfectly round holes they chewed in the wood. They crawl around on the walls for days, sometimes taking a short flight, until they mate, lay eggs back into the wood and die. Our white bathroom walls are now polka-dot!

We've also had a few (too many) spiders find their way inside the house. Now, I grew up in a house with hairy wolf spiders in my bed and black widows under my bed, but I hate spiders! And these ones are HUGE! The other night there was a spider crawling on the wall that was so big, he barely fit through the opening of the mason jar my boyfriend insisted on catching him in. Yes, he catches all the spiders and releases them outside! I swear it's the same one that insists on crawling back inside the house though the open window in our bedroom.

Before I went to Australia, everyone always said "Ooo, I hear they have big spiders there!" When I mentioned that I was moving to New Zealand, no one, not one person ever said "Ooo, watch out for the spiders in New Zealand." In fact, there are spiders here. Big, hairy ones. Fortunately there is only one poisonous spider here, the Katipo, which is some sort of cousin to the black widow. It's usually found in coastal habitat and bites are rare. But still......

Now, I know arachnophobia is totally irrational and silly, but I just don't like spiders. They give me the goosebumps! Their legs are creepy-crawly and their mass of black beady eyes watch me watching them. I just know they wait for me to fall asleep so they can skitter across the bed comforter, into my shoes, and through my closet. I swear. Next time I find a spider, I think I may introduce it to the bottom of my shoe. Actually, forget that, I'll use my boyfriend's shoe.