Saturday, December 5, 2009

An unwanted visitor

We raised the car up on all 4 pins, and commenced the removal of the remaining wheels. The lighting in our work area can be rather dull at times, and at this particular moment Gavin had most of the lighting over his side of the car. As Joel removed the rear-passenger side tyre he noticed several white spots and something moving in the gloom. He called Gav round, and there, sitting on the wheel drum was a huge (for that species) Red-Back spider, the second most poisonous spider in Australia, and a string of egg-sacks she was protecting. Even Gav, the consummate vegetarian-hippy-type agreed that we had to 'dispatch' our hitchhiker and her offspring. After doing so quickly and painlessly, Joel concluded that he should have his garage fumigated in order to ensure that the rest of the car and workshop were Red-Back free, as this species of spider is uncommon in his suburb!