Michigan Wolf Spider, fun to read about, NOT fun to find!!

Eeeeeek!!!! The nightmares have begun. This Michigan WOLF SPIDER (insert chills here) was right outside our back door a few weeks ago. Poisonous but not lethal. We took pictures, then we killed it. Not only that, there was (gulp!) another one in our laundry sink in the basement a few days ago (insert more chills) AHHHCKKK!!! My husband literally torched it. I am officially freaked out. These things are HUGE, they build their nests in the ground like tarantulas and they have my normal tolerance for spiders wiped completely off the charts. I am trying not to let the kids pick up on my fear... but that is not easy, as I've never seen spiders so gigantic and gross outside of, say, a National Geographic feature. Yuck!!! Overcoming my fear isn't easy, but I'm trying to use it, however hesitantly, as a *small* learning opportunity. (Stretching my comfort zone to the max, Dear Lord!) While I'm certainly unable to gain the nerve to JAR these spiders, (shiver!) as I have with various insects in the past (Click Beetles and Praying Mantis, also this year: Honey Bees.) I at least had the kids see it, I took a picture and we searched online together to identify it. Michigan University has a helpful BioKIDS page on Wolf Spiders. The topic has sparked more conversation on why spiders are, in fact, good, even if we don't want them in our house, and of course with my son's fascination with Spiderman, we've done some further discussion with webs and spiders. I don't know if this is God's way to nudge us in the direction to read Charlotte's Web, or not, but we do have it on our book list for either the summer or this fall. If it IS, let me just say to the Man Upstairs: "very funny, but we were going to read Charlotte's Web either way, I don't need to be confronted by these enormous, furry, scary looking spiders at home to start a unit on being friends with these eight-legged creatures." Talk about Arachnophobia! And yes, if I was Miss Muffet, I would freaking run like the dickens if this thing sat beside me, curds and whey or not!!

http://www.librarysupport.net/mothergoosesociety/rhymes/littlemissm.html Oh, and here are some super cute spider sandwiches I invented a few years ago... they aren't so appetizing after being face-to-face with the Michigan Wolf Spider... (twice!) but worth sharing anyway. ;) Spider Sandwiches by Mama Bee.