Ryan 1 – Spiders 0

This past summer the Southwest branch added a brand-spanking new canoe shed to house, you guessed it, spiders. Spiders? Yes, that’s right, spiders. And not just any spiders but gargantuan, female Western Black Widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus). Upon first entering the canoe shed early this fall, I was quickly reminded of the scene near the end of the movie Arachnophobia in which Jeff Daniels’ character stumbles into his barn to find the Volkswagen-sized “mother” spider nesting up in the rafters with her clutter of offspring.
Seeing as our canoe shed was designed for storing canoes and not for hosting scary huge spider slumber parties, something had to be done. The National Guard told me they had more important things to do than running around killing spiders at peoples’ houses, so Ryan Hutchins, our dirt boy extraordinaire, stepped up to the challenge, “retiring” the spiders and constructing a work bench and a hanging platform for storing river gear. Way to go Ry!

Transpo. man Shay Coe brings his own style of grunts and grimaces to the job.

Ryan hookin’ it up.

The Canoe Shed Spider