Check out the “big daddy” my husband found during an inspection on Friday. We like to call him the Crawlspace Gatekeeper. :shock:
Yikes!
Angela Roberts
When I lived around the corner from you, over on my 12 acres in Black Mountain, I ended up weedwhacking a number of copperheads in the course of grounds maintenance.
Not that many spiders n’ snakes up this way, Angela!
I’m so glad West. Wash. doesn’t have poisonous snakes and spiders. Although we have some pretty filthy disgusting, sickening large ones.
Of course the most fun was the stuffed “toy” my dog brought me last year.
Turned out to be a foot long rat (the body) that she had played the stuffing out of and then wanted me to have a go of it.
Ick.
I sent the picture to one of our pest inspector friends to find out exactly what kind of spider it is… and if it’s poisonous.
We’ve seen our fair share of Black Widows and bees around here… even a red-headed woodpecker pecking into the siding of a home during the inspection, but so far, no rats or copperheads. I’m sure Eddie’s bound to cross one’s path sooner or later.
An inspector friend had some type of snake drop on top of him while he was inspecting a crawlspace a while back. He didn’t stick around to see what kind it was.
Angela
Ahh…copperheads while climbing crab-apple trees as a kid…
And water moccassins (sp) while gigging flounders and drinking beer as a teenager…
I miss the Neuse River…
Our pest inspector friend says this is a Wolf spider. Other than causing cardiac arrest just by looking at it, it’s harmless.
For more info, click here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_spider
It’s more likely that it is a domestic house spider. If you look at the wolf spider, it is a little more hairy and scary to say the least.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_house_spider#Appearance
My only close encounter was about 3 years when I was hunkered down doing an Army crawl in a crawlspace. There was a beautiful black vapor barrier, so it was nice and clean. Then I moved a piece of insulation at the back of the crawlspace (about 18’ back to the entrance) to notice a lovely curled up black snake. Well he managed to get scared (just like me) and darted under the vapor barrier. Me on top and him slithering underneath and I have no idea where he was headed.
Needless to say I had several bumps on my head from hitting every other joist in what was the quickest escape I have ever made.
I heard this one from my Home Inspection teacher years ago.
He crawled under a house only to meet a mean glaring dog
half accross the low-head-room crawl space.
He moved backwards faster than most people can run forward,
all the while muttering “nice doggy… nice doggy…” :shock:
John McKenna
American Home Inspection
watch out for the brown recluse!!