I feel a presence in the night. The cat snaps awake. He looks up. Is someone on the roof? My ears detect nothing. I follow his gaze.
A dot inches across the ceiling. It tucks itself under a slat of wood trim. The tips of its legs hang out like eyelashes.
(Wikimedia Commons/public domain)
Welcome to spider season. At this time of year, spider photos replace photos of sweeping vistas on our mountain websites. What kind is it?, worried posters ask. Wolf spider, replies one. Brown spider, says another. Brown recluse?, a poster asks. No, just brown.
Since our cold snap ended a couple of weeks ago, multitudes of spiders emerged. They have a great deal of catching up to do. Go down an outdoor stairway you went down two hours earlier, and freshly spun filaments tickle your face. Sweep, and you will find new webs in the corners the next morning. Sometimes you can find spectacular yellow-and-orange spiders in intricate webs strung between bushes and trees. That’s photo-worthy. Indoors, babies as wide as toothpicks scale the bathroom walls. A daddy longlegs stumbles across the hearth.
We are greatly outnumbered at this time of year. It is their More
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