Baby Tarantulas . . . a Terrifying Prospect

Tarantulas like plantain trees, my downstairs neighbor grows plantains next to our house.  They killed one in the yard outside the house last year.  My maid swore to me that she got a tarantula in her purse while at our house last year (which I refused to believe).  Now let me say, and I thank God as I type this, that I have not seen a tarantula (or really anything close to one) in my house.

But a Dominican friend of mine changed things for me when she told me about her mom killing a pregnant tarantula when she was growing up and the baby spiders poured out of it and scattered through the house.

So up to this time I have been comforting myself that we are safe from tarantulas because they couldn't fit through our screens--which although a little gappy do not allow anything in nearly as large as Abigail's hand.  But I did not consider babies.  Babies which could get bigger!!!  In the two years we've been here I never saw anything more alarming than a roach.  But a few days ago I killed a small spider that struck me as alarmingly black and spidery.  And today Abigail ran screaming from a small black creepy spider (well, small next to a tarantula, it was the size of a quarter) when she went to get the dustbuster.  Do we have a baby tarantula SITUATION????

So help me, I don't know how long I'll last if I see anything bigger!  The same Dominican friend assured me that, "You don't have to worry, they couldn't kill you."  Hmm, that's an underwhelmingly comforting thought.  It's not actually death by tarantula that worries me, it's seeing one in my house and then never being able to relax again.

I mean, I already get mosquitoes and have to wonder if they're carrying Dengue (causing me to chase after them with my electric racquet) and we already have to set roach traps and I already have to be ready to respond when someone yells "Ant attack!" to come running with the biodegradable spray to kill the hundred or so ants that are in a clump or making a line across the wall.  I really do not need one more pest.

My kids are used to tarantulas from school, they get them regularly in the art room, and Micah assures me he helped trap one for his teacher and will totally catch it in a cup for me if we find one in our house.  I just hope I don't have to pick him up early from school one day to do it.  Because I am NOT doing a tarantula if I can help it.