The Perry family: Tarantulas and other things

So, what have we been up to lately?

Well, last week Elijah found a Tarantula on the sidewalk. It was upside down but not dead. He figured it must have been sunbathing (must have needed some extra vitamin D). So he scooped it up with a stick, put it into a child sized wheel barrow, and then excitedly brought it to our apartment. Although I had forewarnings that there were tarantulas at the apartments, we had not seen any yet, and I had concluded we probably wouldn't until next summer. It was with this idea that I found Elijah's news quite alarming, especially with seven-plus little kids clamoring excitedly about trying to get a peak. They were giving me advice on what should be done to it. A blow dart, as well as incineration were some of the top suggestions.
I knew from previous research that tarantulas are not lethal or even in the rank of black widows, however, the size of one in real life had me wishing I had rubber gloves and a shield of some sort as defense; doubly so, after Emma remarked that they can throw urticating hairs at you.
"What?!" my mind panicked and my feet involuntarily took two steps back.
"Urticating what?" I asked.
"Do you know what you're talking about?" I challenged.
I wanted to believe she was making this up, but I could not rule out that she may know something I did not (shocking, I know).
"They throw what?!" I looked furtively and suspiciously at the humongous spider.
"What is this? Some kind of ninja spider?" I thought to myself.
Thinking as quickly as I could, I ordered one of my children to retrieve the butterfly enclosure (the go-to for all the kids' reptilian finds). I then carefully prodded the tarantula into it with a long stick. The whole while I was ready to jump back and run if it looked to jump at me or throw its tiny hair-darts.

With it safely secured and put up from curious gawkers, I put it on top or our counter to figure out what to do with it.

That night, I researched to try and identify what kind of tarantula it was and came to the conclusion it was probably a Texas Brown Tarantula.
I also found this Youtube video of Orry Martin who implanted the idea to hold it. Yep, I said hold it. I chickened out that night, but the next day, before releasing it to the wilds, I finally got the courage to hold it.

And of course Emma had to too. She is way braver than I am when it comes to critters.

My take on it, after the initial shock, is I found I like them considerably. They are very beneficial down here for pest control and very docile. I did get to witness this one kick some hairs when I was trying to get him out of the butterfly enclose but by no means did his speed, distance, or accuracy make it into ninja star fame. I could wax on about all the fun things I learned about them but won't, you're welcome.

Here are a few more pictures of our life down here.