spiders by the hundreds

Clinging to the corner of the house by the top porch step. Clearly offspring of one of the huge orb spiders we found by our foundation last fall.

Cool.

At first I though they were coming out of a niche in the siding, but then I got a good look at their web. With filamentous strands running down to the lip of the top step. Perhaps they had come up?

But why hadn't they scattered? If you trust what you read in Charlotte's Web, these youngsters should all be dispersing to the winds. Instead, they were gathering together into tight clumps.

Perhaps to spin a community web and gather a first meal before striking out on their own? Given their tiny size, only a millimeter or two, there might be safety in numbers.

The wife, of course, had already noticed the hatchlings. When I wondered aloud how hard it would be to move the mass, she asked "Why? They're not hurting anything."

I mention their proximity to heeler tails.

She hadn't thought of that. And immediately foresaw what would happen with the nearly blind masked heeler, who tends to shuffle alongside the porch wall to go in and out.

Well, it's not like the spiders are going to hurt her.

"Maybe not, but she'll bring them inside."

Umm, yeah. I guess so.

Dozens, or hundreds of these tiny little spiders being dropped off everywhere in our house, in our bed...

Not a good thing.

So, Operation Transplant began.

Took seven trips to garner about 80-90 percent of the spiderlings(I was satisfied after three trips each, but the wife had to go back for one more load of maybe a dozen), but we got them ferried to the spruce trees in the garden.

Now, the spruce trees in the garden are where we take almost all the spiders we need to displace, or are brought in to us for ID. It just seems like a spidery sort of place. But truth be known, if it were that great for spiders, it should be full of spiders by now, right?

Not to mention, if they need numbers for safety and food, we've pretty much screwed them out of that now, with spiders falling and hanging everywhere for about half a cubic meter of spruce boughs.

But I went out a few hours later, and lo and behold, the majority of the little buggers had managed to find each other.

And set their trap.