Mystery Holes- Solved!

Mystery Holes- Solved!

            Warning: The following is not for the faint of heart. I am not sure if I want to write this for fear no one will come to visit me while I am here, but since I’ve set up the suspense, I must follow through.  The mystery holes belong to small, cute, white-feathered ground doves that chirp pleasantly and are easily tamed. They are in their summer feeding grounds now but will be returning to the island soon. I wish that were the case.

The moment I uttered the question to my neighbor N, I knew I wouldn’t like the answer. “Why, those holes are where tarantulas live!” was her reply. “But they only come out if it rains.” she added quickly as she saw the look of disbelief and discomfort on my face. Now, I’m not an arachniphobe by any means but I’ve never been around spiders any bigger than a daddy longlegs let alone ones with venomous fangs or ones that have more hair than me.

            The skeptic in me thought maybe N didn’t know what she was talking about as she has only lived here for 25 years, so the next time it rained, I grabbed a flashlight and cautiously tip toed out into the yard to have a look for myself.   The rain brings out the tree frogs and I saw many of these small frogs on the grass making their pleasant chirping calls. “That’s really who makes the holes!” I tried to convince myself. “Tree frogs that live in the ground! Yes! That’s it! It has to be!”

            But then, I scanned my flashlight to see if I could find a frog in a hole and the beam caught what I didn’t want to see. There, at the opening of one of the holes, were the spindly, hairy legs of a tarantula reaching out into the night. Its little eyes caught the glare of the flashlight and in a moment it was gone. I came upon another hole and saw a second spider peering out. The third sighting convinced me that N was right as this time it appeared that the spider was retreating into its den with a frog! So much for my theory!

            The next day, N called to say here brother-in-law had dug up a tarantula’s hole while gardening and captured the occupant. I grabbed my camera and snapped away at the slow moving spider. N went on to say that they are not a danger to people. They tend to stay out of houses especially those up on stilts like mine. She did say that they like to crawl into shoes and that’s how she was bitten once. “Just like a bee sting!” she grinned.  So now, I am in the habit of knocking my shoes together before tucking in my tender, tantalizing toes. That’s all you have to do, as well, when you come to visit so don’t worry.

            I am still interested in getting the croquet set and thought it would be a neat challenge to play barefoot croquet in the rain with headlamps.  Anyone game?