Arachnophobes Beware

Remember Pat, our Arachnopet, who lived in one of our balcony shrubs all last summer? After hanging around for months, feasting on flies and growing ever-larger, Pat -- so named because we were uncertain of gender -- disappeared when the weather changed in the fall. I remember seeing her hunkered down under a leaf on a cold, windy, rainy day, and then she was just gone.

She still has not reappeared, if, indeed, she survived the winter. But yesterday morning I found a swarm of tiny, pinhead-sized spiders on the pot of the shrub where Pat lived. She apparently left an egg sac -- at least one -- and it had hatched.

The spiders swarmed out onto their own little web, and after an initial period of exploration and dispersal, seemed to coagulate into two little clumps. I wondered if this had something to do with protection from the sun and the heat of the day. No telling.

To make a long story short, it looks like we'll have more Pats hanging around this year. Surely all these guys won't make it -- that would be a little much, the stuff of horror movies. But I could deal with one or two or even a handful, as long as they don't come inside.

I guess there's no question about Pat's gender now!