Icky Encounter

Remember back a few months ago, when I mentioned something about the White Tail spider not being as poisonous as people thought?
Well, it's now December, the weather has turned warm, and it's brought the spider population out of hiding. Spiders are cold-blooded, and only become active when they are warm enough, unlike we humans who carry our own heat internally.

Anyway, the other night I stepped out of my bedroom, looked up, and -
That's a White Tail spider, all right!

Now, I know that close-up picture is misleading (btw, the macro setting on my new camera works very well!) so I took another one to give you a better idea of scale:This spider was about 2cm long (legspan), which is about the largest these spiders will get. Nothing too scary.

Except, once I'd taken the photos, I put the camera back in my room, stepped into the hallway again - and it was gone. It was almost as if I'd captured it inside the camera!

And then, I saw it scuttling along the floor... ick!
So I caught it in a jar, and put it outside.