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This morning, Caleb called to me, "Mom, there's a bug there." So I looked, and say a BIG (about two inches long) spider under the coffee table. This was not your typical house spider. Bryan and I cornered it and he caught it in a glass so we could check it out.

He Googled it and we are certain that the spider we caught is a Zoropsis spinimana.

This spider does not bite, but it is a species foreign to North America. It is typically found in the Mediterranean coast and North Africa. It has recently been found in the San Francisco Bay area - and as far as we can tell it has never been found this far east and north. So we're emailing a picture of it to the researcher mentioned in this article we found from last year who is tracking the spread of the species. They don't know how it came here exactly, but it's estimated that it stowed away in a shipment or traveler's suitcase from its native land.

So this creepy crawly who makes MY skin crawl is a special creepy crawly and it's a good thing I didn't kill it the moment I saw it!

*My theory on killing spiders in the house is that there are probably 10 more I can't see for each one I spray with Raid. Especially here - there are a lot of spiders in this area - there are a lot more where that one came from.*