kirin

Gabe and I have some spiders that decided last winter our windows looked like a good place to set up shop. It started with one, who is still there and kicking even though it's been about a year since she moved in. Over this summer we've kept finding new ones in the windows and around the outside of the house. Today I found the biggest one I've seen, with a smaller one that looked dead in the web, and a big ass nest. I didn't exactly want this thing hatching right outside my kitchen so I grabbed a stick and started winding the web around it to move them. Low and behold the smaller one wasn't dead! I managed to get the whole family and move them way out into our back back yard. I went out there a while later to see how they were doing and the two adult spiders were gone. I thought they had just left the babies to fend for themselves. I went back out again and big momma spider had returned and was apparently not pleased with the location I chose for them and was working on moving the eggs. It looked like she was only moving them about 3 inches from where I put them and I watched her toil away rebuilding a GIANT web. I'm not sure where the daddy went. He may be in the doghouse for letting a mere human relocate them.

I did some looking online and it turns out these things are called American House Spiders. They are related to Black Widows, but really non-aggressive and only slightly poisonous. One of the articles I found suggested that they are helpful because once they decide where they want to live they don't roam the house much and the eat other bugs. This seems to be the case with ours. She moved in around this time last summer and has been eating everything she can that gets in her window. When winter hit last year we watched her make a more secure web in the corner of the window and she waited the weather out until spring when she moved back down toward the middle of the window. There are two other similar spiders living in her window now which may be her babies. None of them have made any effort to actually get in the house.

Most of the spiders we have in the windows now are living between the inner window and the storm window. The windows were sealed shut by some previous owner so if we want to remove the spiders we will have to remove the storm window from the outside. So far it just hasn't been worth the effort.

Once the camera is charged I will try to take some pics to post.

Charged... not great pics



This is the original spider in the window.



This is the spider/eggs I moved. I'm not sure where the male went. Damn deadbeat dads.