Wildlife

Mullica Hill lacks people, yet is over abundant in wildlife. In the last two years, I have encountered a fox in the parking lot, several deer walking between our parking lot and the lot next to us, a box turtle with only 3 legs (that Rachel would not let me keep), several feral cats (no surprise there), a hickory horned devil caterpillar, and an orb spider with a spider web the size of my car. I have been lucky to only encounter one snake, though it slithered over my foot (which is why I no longer wear flip flops to take out the trash).

In the last week, I have encountered my fair share of wildlife that has made me second guess my decision to stay in the farm lands of New Jersey. Last week, I went downstairs to finally do laundry in my own building. On my way back up the stairs, I alarmed a rather large bat like creature. Honestly, I thought it was a bat. It was flipping out and had me cornered on the porch, as it fluttered its wings trying to find a safe place to land. When it finally did land, I was quite surprised to find it wasn't a bat at all. It was a moth...the size of my hand. As soon as it landed, I slowly went inside to get Rachel, because I am not the only person that needs to encounter such a rare specimen. By the time we came outside, the moth had flown away to safety, not giving me the opportunity to take a picture of the bad boy before fleeing. After doing tons of internet research, I finally learned that the moth was a giant silk moth.

Giant Silk Spider

Comb Clawed Spider

Tuesdays mark trash night, which I haven't done in quite some time. Since I was determined to actually take out the trash this week (since nobody did it last week), I cleaned out the garage at the same time. There has been tons of stuff piling up in the garage since we moved in, and in the next week or so I have to bring home the remainder of my school stuff since I won't officially have a classroom and would rather not junk up a community classroom with my stuff. The first thing that went were the numerous spider nests near the door of the garage. The comb clawed spider have been a regular neighbor around here, at first their large bodies and scrawny legs were quite creepy, yet in the last year I have found them actually interesting to watch. There were several on our porch this spring, that I didn't disturb since they were making a buffet out of the stink bugs in the area. I didn't get rid of their nests until they started to lay egg sacks above the outside door and outside windows. I don't mind a few spiders having a buffet, but draw the line when they invite their friends and family to move into town. It was like low income housing for spiders out there.

After dispatching several nests and removing tons of broken crates, a set of Rubbermaid drawers that had become warped from the heat, math binders that had become infested with stink bugs and spiders (from the last move from school) and several other pieces of trash, I noticed not one, but two baby garner snakes slithering out of the garage. Apparently they had either tried to move in during my cleaning, or decided to move out before I had found them. I'm not completely sure how the hell they got in there, but I was not happy. In fact, I almost threw up due to my insane fear of snakes. 

After the snakes were gone (they slithered into the wooded area to keep the foxes, deer, possums, raccoon, and other mammal wildlife company) I reentered the garage to put several more items into place. During this time, I noticed a large, wasp like creature trying to carry a brown, fuzzy spider that was three times its size away. The spider was missing two legs and was already dead, but nevertheless, it still was creepy. I did what any sane person would do, I quickly emptied out a small container, and used the lid to slip the creature into the container. 

Wolf Spider...ew

After doing lots of research on the computer this evening, I have come to the conclusion that the spider was a rather large wolf spider. Wolf spiders are creepy in themselves due to their sheer size, but when you add in the fact that they are covered in fur and resemble a small tarantula they are quite unbearable. Rachel will probably have nightmares after I show her the dead spider (which is now residing on the porch in a smaller container). I'm pretty sure the spider was dead when I found it, though I wouldn't be surprised to find it crawling in the container when I go outside later.

I have seen several wolf spiders since moving to Mullica Hill, though none have been this large. Luckily they aren't poisonous, but they do have rather large fangs, which could probably cause a very painful bite.

In addition to the wolf spider, snakes, and comb clawed spiders, I also had to remove two huge worms that were the size of a fresh pencil and as thick as my little finger. They wiggled themselves into the garage just as I had turned around to leave. In fact, I almost stepped on one of them, which resulted in flipping out and attacking it with my shovel. As soon as I scooped the worm and flung him into the parking lot, I noticed another one trying to make its way into the garage. 

Needless to say...I hate Mullica Hill.