Encountering the natives

I had been warned about some of the "native" population on the campus and particularly the dangerous ones (rattlesnakes, copperhead snakes, black widow spiders, brown recluse spiders) - but I hadn't actually seen any of the creatures about which I had been warned until Sunday evening when I was walking back from Sing & Share...

Can you tell what it is?

It was a tarantula on the sidewalk. I didn't get too close, and my camera probably wasn't too sure about what I was trying to take a picture of, so it is a bit fuzzy... even fuzzier than he was in "real life".

He (or she, I didn't ask...) had a few of his legs up in the air, which I took to be a defensive posture... but, looking up information online (https://animals.mom.me/different-tarantula-stances-mean-1927.html) - it looks like he may have been in a threatening position. Let's just say that I stayed on the far side of the sidewalk...

I did NOT get *off* the sidewalk though, as another common "native" on the campus seems to be chiggers... I had to look back at a post from a couple of years ago to remind myself of what the "rub" might be:
http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2017/05/whats-rub.html
http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2017/05/whats-rub-part-2.html

I've been trying to remember to spray bug spray on my ankles each morning and to stay on the sidewalks... that seems to be helping a lot, but not 100% eliminating my need for "the rub"...