h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a pet spider His name is George and he lives behind the toilet. He's quite small, less than half an inch across legs included. Up until recently ago he was riding the spider equivalent of the the gravy train with biscuit wheels. His hat was on the side of his head and everything was for the best in his best of all possible worlds. Here's why.

The owners of the complex got a contractor in to replace all the siding, which disturbed the ants living in the walls who decided to up sticks and take refuge in the apartment, and I wasn't the only one this was happening to - several of my neighbours, even those from other buildings, had the same problem. The ants were getting in through a gap in the wall behind the toilet where the water pipe that leads up to the cistern comes in, and then spreading themselves around the apartment. Obviously the kitchen was a prime attraction for them and it didn't take them long to find it.

A short while later I noticed a small web close to where the pipe (and the ants) came into the bathroom. I'm not sure which came first, the ants or the spider. I hadn't had reason to look there for a while. Either way, over the next few weeks a little pile of desiccated ant bodies began to pile up on the floor under the web, which was about six inches above. That made me very happy because each of those was one less ant I had to try and keep out of the kitchen. Result

The work on the outside of the building finished a few months ago. I noticed the number of ants in the apartment started to dwindle, and now there are none; I guess they must have all gone back to where they were before the upheaval, which makes me concerned for George because I don't know what else there is for him to eat. I rarely see any kind of wildlife in here and he certainly wouldn't be able to tackle a cockroach, if I could even recall the last time I saw one in here anyway. I know that spiders, like some other creatures such as snakes, can for for extended periods without food, but he's never going to be served up with the same feast as he was for that glorious period when he was getting three -shaped meals a day plus dessert and snacks.

I'm sure George just went where the food is.

I love the little jumping spiders I get in my apartment every once in a while. They're just so cute.

I have one or two of those too

George is still sitting in his web, btw.

Glad George is OK

George has either moved on or gone to that great web in the sky

However, there is one (possibly two) of those little jumping spiders patrolling the apartment I see the little blighter everywhere, sometimes even crawling across the monitor At one point it even started crawling up my leg

So, er... George II

as a young lad my brother always called his pet spiders Ian.

My cat's called George, spiders are *always* called Eric.

I thought half-bees were called Eric

Boris

Anything but Shelob

George II is currently patrolling the patio door, FYI

And I think I've discovered where George I went http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-22884537

I think George did a bit of procreating and caused the Great Spider Scare of 2013.


(Yes, I'm delving into my dusty convos.)

Yep, once again a sizeable proportion the British population has shown itself to be as dumb as a box of rocks, influenced entirely by a frothing-at-the-mouth sensationalist media that has no sense of proportion and would never let facts get in the way of a good story.