Creepy, Crawly, And Yucky

9/20/2012 bugs , class , cup , yuck 2 Comments

On Tuesday at work, the owner’s brother (John) came to help out. We have a guy on medical leave, so we needed an extra pair of hands. Well, later on that day, John came in carrying a Styrofoam cup with a piece of paper towel over it.

Me: I was sitting behind my desk, curiously looking at him. "What do you have?"

John: "It’s a spider." He moved to my desk, and I wheeled my chair back as far as it could go. "Here. Look at it."

Me: "No. Get it away from me."

John turned and showed Nancy (owner’s wife).

Me: I made a face. "Why do you have a spider in a cup?"

John: "My son needs it for his agronomy class in college. They have to collect all sorts of bugs."

Nancy: "Simon had to do the same thing in junior high for one of his classes."

I could feel the horror on my face. Remember, I live in a small farming community, so I guess this is normal here. I grew up in Arizona and moved to North Dakota six years ago. I never heard of such a thing.

John moved back to my desk with his hand on top of the cup.

Me: I swallowed hard and shook my head. "I don’t want to see it."

John: "Just look at it."

He held the cup in front of my desk, removed his hand along with the paper towel, and slightly tilted the cup so I could see it.

Me: "Omigod. That’s a huge spider. In fact, I killed one just like it in my computer room last week. What kind is it?"

John: "I think it’s a barn spider."

A barn spider?

What the hell was a barn spider doing in my house? Is what I thought.

So John moved across the room as if he were holding a drink in his hand. I was thinking, are you serious? That damn spider could easily crawl out. But John didn’t seem concerned. He was too busy trying to find some alcohol to preserve it. He picked up a Windex bottle. My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped.

John: "I can spray this on him, right?" He looked at me.

In that moment, a vision popped in my head of him spraying the spider and it scurrying out, landing onto the floor. I knew it would happen. I just knew it would.

Me: "Don’t do it!"

He positioned the bottle like he was going to, and I shook my head. Thankfully, Nancy came to the rescue. She found some alcohol, dipped a q-tip in it, and dropped it in the cup. I could breathe now. But then he didn’t know what to do with it.

Me: "If the spider escapes, I’m outta here."

Again, Nancy saved the day. She told John to grab one of the many empty mixed nuts containers we had, and put it in there. He did and stuck it in the freezer.

Yuck.

I don’t know if John remembered to take it home with him Tuesday night because he won’t be back in to help until tomorrow, and I have no desire to check the freezer.

Nope.

Not me.