Arachniphobia

I was relaxing after a 4 hour day of work up in Leaburg, and Pete was getting ready for bed. I heard a blood-curdling scream from the bedroom. Literally, blood curdling, and it went on for about 10 minutes. I figured my husband had discovered a spider. Since he knows he is not allowed to kill them, he ends up sort of incapacitated when he finds one. So, I trudged into the bedroom and looked on the wall. Pete was at the far end of the room, pointing and screaming. As soon as I saw the beast, I started screaming too.

This is what we saw (not the actual spider, but the same species and size):



This is what Peter looked like:



Apparently the spider was a "Giant House Spider," very common in the northwest and often growing to a 3"-4" diameter (ours was about the width of a paper dollar). Apparently they are good, because they eat the dangerous Hobo spider, which is also common in this area and is related to the brown recluse.

Given my respect for the fact that spiders eat other bugs that I don't like, I transported this spider outside to the front of our house. It is possible, given its size, that it will eat a neighbor's child. I read (don't tell Pete) that because these are "house" spiders, you are supposed to transport them far away. If you don't, they immediately return to your house. Oops. Where's the cat?