l really don't mind cute little household spiders. In fact our spiders and I have come to a tacit agreement. They remain quietly beneath the floorboards eating any other bugs and I don't vacuum them up. One leg above the boards and the vacuum gets a snack. I kept wolf spiders growing up, but until Poseidon and Sister are smart enough to use a terrarium to save the fuzzy little troublemakers they are duly sequestered.
Here's where the problem comes. I return from a month and a half business trip on the mainland to a boat that that just completed a boatyard availability . . . clean/fix/paint everything beneath the waterline while out of the water on what appear to be stilts. It still looks so weird to me. Anyhow, the new Xantrex inverter isn't working, so we have no A/C power, I still have to unpack, and Poseidon loses a Lego head down by the mast. l grab the vacuum to fend off my below deck friends, tell Poseidon to keep Sister occupied, open the floorboards, and
FIND BIG BAD BOATYARD SPIDERS!
Yes. They deserve all caps. There were three of them, and they were not cute nor fuzzy. Ugly brown and black, spindly legged, boat poachers which looked up at me like, "Hey cutie, are you here for lunch? We're hungry!" I tried to vacuum them as a response. Remember that "lack of A/C power" thing? Yeah. But, I got two of those suckers first. The third, calmly perched in his web looked at me. I looked back and thought:
"Ok my cute, little household spiders, there must be some explanation for this. I mean, were you down at the boatyard bar, had one too many flies and brought THIS home? Please tell me you regretted it in the morning."
Then, I noticed it. The Lego head. Right where I would have to reach through not just the web, but through the Spider. I don't think I need to state this, but the Lego is still there and the vacuum is plugged into an extension cord run from our neighbors' boat.
Oh, and I found a partially eaten fuzzy spider stuck to one of the legos I did recover. Cannibal.
