This is the ‘absolutely insane’ moment a mum on the school run emerges from her house to find a huge spider devouring a rodent on her doorstep.
The gruesome scene confronted Meagen Wallace and her three-year-old son, Jameson, when they left for pre-school in Austin, Texas.
Opening the front door, they faced one of the largest spider types in the US, with an ‘unusual’ victim in its jaws.
Meagan said: ‘At first glance I thought it was a piece of dog poop and was irritated that a neighbour would allow that to happen and not clean it up.
‘But once I got closer I realised it was moving slightly, and I immediately but calmly instructed my son to take a step back, as he was about to unknowingly step on it.
This is the ‘absolutely insane’ moment a mum on the school run emerges from her house to find a huge spider devouring a rodent on her doorstep
The gruesome scene confronted Meagen Wallace and her three-year-old son, Jameson, when they left for pre-school in Austin, Texas
‘Once assured my son was behind me, I inspected it and realised that it was in fact a mostly-dead mouse with a massive wolf spider on top eating its head.
‘There were little clumps of mouse fur all around, like there had been some sort of struggle beforehand.’
Texas arachnologist Ashley Wahlberg, known as the ‘Spider Lady’, said it was a wolf spider of the hogna genus – among the largest found in the US.
It was, she said, ‘a very neat observation’.
But fear came before fascination for Ms Wallace.
She said: ‘My initial reaction was disbelief and horrified awe.
‘I’ve worked very hard to not be as afraid of spiders as I once was as a child, but this definitely caught me off guard.
Opening the front door, they faced one of the largest spider types in the US, with an ‘unusual’ victim in its jaws
Meagen Wallace and her three-year-old son, Jameson, stumbled across the gruesome scene when they left for pre-school in Austin, Texas
‘I knew my son was right behind me so I swallowed my first reaction and switched to curiosity, so I could show him how cool this absolutely insane event is.
‘Internally I was freaking out but kept it together for my kiddo.’
Ms Wahlberg, who teaches at Angelina College in Lufkin, said the spider could be scavenging another animal’s kill, but had most likely killed the mouse itself.
She said: ‘Wolf spiders are active predators so it is likely the spider killed the mouse itself rather than scavenging, but without seeing the interaction take place we can never really know.
‘It is unusual for a spider to take down prey this large, but it’s seen often enough among the larger spiders.
‘However, most reports of spiders feeding on vertebrates are with orbweavers and widows.
‘Both of these have their webbing that the prey initially gets caught in, then they use their venom to finish it off.
After taking some pictures and video of the encounter, Ms Wallace left nature to take its course
‘Wolf spiders make webbing but they don’t hunt with webbing, therefore it would just be relying on its strength, quickness, and venom to take down prey.’
For Ms Wallace, an environmental scientist, it was unlike anything she’d seen before.
She said: ‘I’ve travelled all over the world doing research and field work in remote jungles and forests.
‘I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff, but never in my life have I seen this – I honestly didn’t even know wolf spiders ate things like rodents!
‘I have seen them eat every insect under the sun but watching it consume this mouse that was much larger than itself was definitely one for the record books.’
After taking some pictures and video, Ms Wallace left nature to take its course.
She joked: ‘I had no clue what to even do about it, and part of me was hoping that the spider would remember my kindness and choose not to come after me now that it’s had a taste of flesh.’
For little Jameson, it was an exciting encounter to tell his whole class about.
And in the end, it was a learning experience for Meagan too.
She said: ‘I learned that I’m pretty good at keeping it together in the face of what at one point in my life would have been an absolute nightmare to witness.
‘It showed the amount of growth I’ve experienced since becoming a scientist and a mum, and honestly it gave me some interesting insight into wolf spider behaviour.’
