Little Miss Mary or Along Came a Spider

Mary captured this photo of a Texas Brown Tarantula on her cell phone camera recently.

It was evening and dark outside. The tarantula was on the rock step at the the entrance to our kitchen. It's not the best photograph, but the opportunity to write about it was too good to pass up.

You can see the corner of the door frame and the black rubber sweep at the door's bottom. I estimate it was about 4 inches in diameter, at the legs, and the body was about 2 inches long.

We've seen them before, but not often, usually in the evenings when we're walking our dogs. Texas browns are the most common species of tarantula thriving in the southern United States. They don't make a web like most spiders, but rather live in the ground and line the burrow with their silk. I think I've seen a tarantula burrow once, but I'm not sure that's what is was. The female lays up to 1000 eggs and then guards the burrow until they hatch. Females have been known to live up to 30 years.

They eat beetles, cockroaches, crickets, and pinky (newborn) mice.

They are very docile and can be kept as pets. I ran into a woman at the pet store recently who was buying crickets for her pet tarantula which she found in her yard.

No, Mary didn't kill it. She gave it its space and it just wandered off. Even if we'd found it in the house, we would just carry it outside. They're a native species and an important part of our habitat. They help to control insect and mouse populations and won't bother you if you leave them alone.