Looking at the small spider in the sealed wineglass, I glance up at my Mum.
‘Mum, it’s an ordinary house spider, nothing dangerous about it.’
I give the glass a tap to prove my point.
My Mum has always been a worrier – to say she’s a bit overcautious is like saying that the Queen is only a bit royal. She sees danger everywhere; it would be no surprise to find her scanning the sky for asteroids on collision course with earth, and her policy is quite simply, ‘If it moves, insure it.’
So when Mum found a spider nestling in the grapes, we all laughed when she claimed it was poisonous. It was just your average spider - small, brown and shiny. But Mum insisted it had an unusual mark on its back, like a double arrow.
But Mum was not going to be persuaded. “I’m not going to kill it, that would be cruel, and I’m not going to let it go either, just in case it is poisonous.”
Instead, she got in touch with the Natural History Museum. We waited around, expecting them to give her a polite brush off, but instead, Mum informed us that they wanted to see the spider. She sent it off in an old spice bottle, padded with damp tissue paper and waited excitedly for the results.
A few days later, she got a letter back from the museum.
“I’m right!” she called as she waved the piece of paper proudly. “It’s a poisonous False Widow Spider.”
Our over cautious Mum really was right – her spider belonged was officially known as a Steatoda paykullianus, apparently regular stowaways in grapes from Southern Europe. Although their bites are not fatal, they can inflict a lot of pain and swelling.
Mum was thrilled. Although she is still over cautious, we’ve learnt that sometimes, her worries aren’t always completely over the top.
Beth. Aged 14
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Wow. No more grapes for us!
I'm told the thing to do is really immerse them in water when you rinse them - ensures that anything nasty is washed out of the grapes (and can be retrieved and, if it takes you that way, posted off for verification).
Your daughter has a great blogging future ahead of her.
Tried to flog it to 'Chat' for extra pocket money but didn't have any pictures. We thought real life trauma in print more interesting on university application form than the Duke of Edinburgh award any day. Will pass on your kind words to her, Iota.
Here, Omega Mum, I thought you were talking about your Mum, but it turned out to be Beth talking about you! I thought, what an old fuddy duddy and for a change she was right, but it was you! Are you becoming all feisty in your middle years now? Having to always be right and drawing out an argument until everybody is sick and tired of it? That can't be you, can it? Say it isn't so. Watch out for the next batch of bananas. There may be some odd spiders hiding it it.
Irene: Fuddy duddy and proud of it. Apparently tarantulas are delicious roasted - black widows the sort of crunchy nut cornflakes of the arachnid world.
Post a Comment