The Year of the Spiders

I am a stationary observer of nature, having been in the same home, surrounded by a sanctuary of plants and trees, for 22 years.

Through the years I have noted that in any given year certain insects are more prevalent than others.

Years ago I began referring to such annual occurrences as “The Year of the Flies,” “The Year of the Wasps,” and so forth.

For 21 years, insects prevailed, but not this past year.

Never in all these years has there been an overabundance of arachnids - until this past year.

There are, apparently, spiders in my home, and I’m delighted I cannot see them. But, they weave and leave their calling cards in the form of cobwebs.

There is a distinction to be made between spider webs and cobwebs: spiders spin orbs of insect-catchers while cobwebs are tightly woven clumps of the sticky, silky substance.

For a year now I’ve waged a one–woman war, cleaning out corners, nooks and crannies filled with cobwebs. Come morning, busy little eight-legged night visitors have replaced them.

A couple of days ago I asked the pest-control guy about this infestation, but he seemed oblivious to the phenomenon.

So, it was with a great deal of interest and amusement, that I read an email this morning from my friend Andrew, editor of the online Red Dirt Report, an Oklahoma- based news site.

Apparently “The Sooner State” is experiencing this problem later.

Crawl over to Andrew’s “Red Dirt Report” (reddirtreport.com) and read “What’s with all the spiders?” by Michael Gamino: LINK

So, readers out there: is this just a problem specific to Oklahoma and my apartment, or is this a world wide web? Comments welcomed!