Creepy crawly critter visits APA kids

Aaron Rouse displays his pet tarantula to Parrott Academy kindergarteners dressed for Halloween fun.

On Friday October 29th Parrott Academy kindergarteners shivered with fright and delight at an eight-legged visitor straight from a Halloween movie.  Aaron Rouse of Kinston brought his tarantula to visit the five-year olds, offering them a blend of fascinating facts and personal anecdotes. 

The Avicularia avicularia tarantula comes from Central and South America.

Rouse and his wife Samantha, who teaches art at APA, own an Avicularia avicularia, sometimes called the pinktoe tarantula (because of its pink toes).  This species is. native from Costa Rica to Brazil and the southern Caribbean.  

After climbing up and down Rouse’s arm onto the classroom carpet to the oohs and ahs of the costumed kids, the arachnid went back into his glass aquarium. Rouse speculated that the students may have been as spooky to the tarantula as he was to his human observers.