Confession, I have arachnophobia!

Last week I started digging in the ground where I have my garden planted in pots, to try something new. Come to find out my garden is infested with tarantulas! Which explains all of those small holes in the ground. Doesn’t really make me feel like getting down on my knees and planting a seed in the ground, if you know what I mean. Of course I know nothing about a tarantula, and I’m thinking these hairy, crawly, monsters are going to fly up onto my face, and with one bite I will die in the backyard.

Since my phobia is getting in the way of my gardening I’ve decided to do a little research.

Come to find out I cannot die from a tarantula bite, if they did bite me it would be more like a bee sting. I also found out that tarantulas might be some of the biggest spiders in the world but they are the least aggressive and really aren’t that dangerous (just scary.) Tarantulas are also very fragile, so they aren’t likely to be jumping up at my face (sigh of relief.)

About.com has a pretty interesting list if you too need more tarantula information: 10 Cool Facts About Tarantulas.

You might also like this blog post about the Termite Mound.

While I sit on the porch at my house, AKA Sweet Bottom, I get to stare at this beautiful Flamboyant tree that is covered in air plants. St John has a lot of different epiphyte growing naturally throughout the National Park. Hope you enjoy these photographs of the air plants I’ve found in my neighborhood. 

     I’ve always had a fascination with apples, maybe it’s because of my father would drag me to the apple orchid when I was young. While he picked apples all day, my brother and I would play in the orchid; climbing trees, having apple wars, and I can’t help but wonder how many apples we would eat in one day.

Of course I’m not alone with my apple fascination, religion, mythology, and folktales have all incorporated the apple as a mystical or forbidden fruit for years. The scene of the evil witch giving Snow White a poisonous apple by The Brothers Grim in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comes to mind when finding out about the Manchineel Tree.

Have you ever heard of the Manchineel Tree? I never could have imagined that an apple could really be deadly. Its present day Spanish name is “manzanilla de la muerte” which means “little apple of death.” This tree is so deadly that you should never stand under it while it’s raining, if the sap touches your skin it will blister and can even cause blindness. The apples from a Manchineel Tree are fatal. Since the “little apple of death” is native to the Caribbean, this seems like vital information for everyone to know what the Manchineel Tree looks like. 

This is what to look for: