A Creepy Crawly Welcome

 

Asiatic rhinoceros beetle

 Flicking on the light I walked down the stairs to my basement. I had only been home for a few minutes but wanted to check the house and see what I’d need to do to get it into shape after my long absence. The upstairs was clean and tidy and ready for me to start unpacking and the whole house had been cleaned a couple of weeks before. I went down the stairs and turned the corner. I pulled up short.

There if front of me was the huge inverted corpse of a spider, curled legs frozen and dangling in the web of another spider. The dead spider was at least an inch across and had to have been quite big when it was alive. Taking a broom from the wall, I poked at the dead spider, just reassuring myself that it was indeed dead. I shuddered and stepped around the web, making a mental note to clear away the cobwebs downstairs as one of my first chores.

I’d only gone a step or two when I stumbled on a rhinoceros beetle that was struggling on its back. It angrily flailed it’s legs in a futile attempt to right itself. Having had run ins with these beetles in the past I gingerly poked the bristles of the broom near it’s upturned feet. It hissed and spit but finally grabbed on to the proffered broom. All the way to the door it voiced its displeasure until I finally placed it back on its feet outside my back door in the flowerbed leading into my garden.

I closed and locked the door, leaning against it with a sign of relief. At my front door I’d been welcomed with flowers and notes and hugs. But down in my basement the reality of my tropical home crashed in around me once again, reminding me of the unexpected joys of living in the tropics. It was a very creepy crawly welcome home indeed.