Look who decided to visit me today.
A daring jumping spider.
It had been raining all day yesterday so I went on the balcony to check on the plants and I noticed a little critter looking in at me through the window.
These little daring jumping spiders are very quick and hard to catch. Here you can see it has a little safety line web attached to the glass just in case it needs to repel off to safety somewhere.
I figured this spider would be too quick to try and catch so I slid open the balcony door and watered the plants. Little did I know it decided to go between the sliding door and get caught inside the seal.
HELLLP! I'm caught in the door seal....
Eventually with a lot of hand waving and using a tiny twig I coaxed it out of the door seal and it ended up inside on the carpet. There was quite a bit of hopping around and me blocking it from escaping out of view before I finally caught it. These little guys rarely bite so they are easily handled and they even get used to being handled after a while.
Once I caught it I let it go outside on my jade succulent. Now it can search for any insects out on the balcony again. It will hopefully guard against any mites or aphids.
I usually end up seeing one or two of these guys in the fall, for the rest of the year they are very tiny and take a while to grow. This one was large enough to be looking for a mate. Who knows maybe it will lay and egg sack and I'll have a balcony full of jumping spiders.
Here's video of one I kept as a pet a few years ago