Spider

So, it all began innocently enough.  I was going to vacuum out the van - it really, really needed it - and I went to plug in the vacuum at the outlet just outside of the storage room door.  

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm always afraid of this outlet.  Not because I think I'm going to get electrocuted when I plug in a cord, but because lizards tend to hide inside the cover.  

So, like I usually do, I knocked on the cover - to warn the lizard that I was coming and let him know who's boss - and I carefully opened the top.  

However, today it wasn't a lizard waiting to pounce out and scurry up the wall.  It was a spider.  A LARGE spider.  I may have screamed a little and let the lid fall back down.  I asked Jon to get me the 'spider jar'.  Last week we had found a somewhat big spider inside the house and kept it in the jar for a few hours while we investigated it.  There are brown recluse spiders here.  We weren't able to find out any incriminating evidence so we eventually let it go out in the backyard.  

However, this spider was different. 

 I got some gloves while Jon fetched the jar and, when he returned, I knocked the spider off of the underside of the lid, into the jar, and quickly screwed on the top.  

And that's when I knew.  

We could see the bottom of the abdomen and there was an orange hourglass.  I knew that this was no ordinary spider.  

I cleaned off the webs and the dead carcasses of about five other spiders and bugs.  I wanted to Google the spider, but I needed to vacuum.

  

  So, I set the jar inside the door and got my work done.  

As soon as I was finished I went inside to the computer and looked up the spider.  

Brian got home for lunch just in time to hear all about our excitement.  

Turns out it was a Brown Widow.  Interesting stuff.  

We added a nail-polish-remover-soaked cotton ball to the jar to take care of it and I was able to get some pictures.  

Thinking later I decided that it was a good thing that lizards had taught me to be careful with that outlet.  Otherwise I would have opened it and stuck my hand in there to plug in the vacuum and the lid would have landed on my hand - that's where the spider was sitting, on the lid - and I may have been bitten.  Yikes!  So, yay for lizards - and they eat mosquitoes too.  Bonus!!