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Life in the desert

For the second time this week (and third time this summer) I had to rescue a tarantulla from my swimming pool. A day or two ago I opened the garbage can to dump some stuff into it and wound up rescuing a baby (2" diameter) one from the can. I just wish they'd stay out of the pool. In past years I've had them in the back yard, even coming into the house, but they always managed to avoid falling into the water.

They hunt at night ... males roam, and females stay in their burrows. The females position themselves right at the burrow entrance, with their forward legs filling the opening, held parallel to the ground. When anything touches the hairs on their legs, they jump out and grab it.

Their main predator is the tarantulla hawk wasp, a BIG (maybe 2-3" long) solitary wasp, shiny black in color, with bright red wings. They cruise around, slowly, a few feet off the ground, looking for their prey, sometimes landing and hopping around. The wasp apparently regards the world as consisting of tarantullas and other stuff, and is interested only in the first. Stand still, and they'll fly or hop around you, to make sure there isn't a spider behind you. Your significance is only that you're blocking their view of spiders.