hooks: Try using plain rubbing alcohol (or 409 or Fantastik, or their generic equivalent) on the plant (Spritz it on the leaves and stems). Make sure to water the plant thoroughly as the treatment is slightly drying to the plant, (and thoroughly drying to many insects). It works on ants, and spider mites, mealy bugs etc - so it may work on spiders too. Most 'bug sprays' available for home use are made using pyrethrins - which occur in, or are derived from chemicals that occur in, chrysanthemums, and do not contain active 'heavy chemicals' per se [by which I'm assuming that you mean they are made somehow only from a barrel of 'heavy' crude oil]. Please check out the article on natural carcinogens you are exposed to in a holiday dinner below. The main point is: just because it's manmade doesn't mean it's toxic, and just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe. Here is a link that might be useful: Carcinogens in a Holiday Dinner

pelican: That looks very much like the common garden spider I saw out on the blackberries last week. Presuming you don't pester them to the point they feel the need to bite in self defense they are harmless, but great mosquito catchers. Nevertheless, I too have noticed an unusual number of web building spiders this season and am frankly perplexed as to the reason, because until we started catching the northen edges of the recent tropical storms last week, we have suffered a very dry summer and in exchange for corn crops looking dicey, have been virtually mosquito free. Indeed, we have seen far fewer flying insects in general this year, which does not bode well for the reproductive success of birds that rely on soft foods to feed their hatchlings. So what have all those spiders have been living on all summer, let alone give them the energy to reproduce in such profusion?

I believe it to be the freshly molted exoskeleton of the spider....who has walked away from this old rag in good shape.....bigger and better than ever. If we had an idea of the size of this, we might be able to ID. Spiders, shell fish, insects, and many other arthropods molt their skins (exoskeleton), often in one big act...leaving behind the perfect shell. Spiders pull each leg out and back out of that dead skin ever so carefully. These molts disintegrate rapidly or else we would literally be buried up to our eyebrows in this stuff.

Shut the drain off. If that doesn't do it, you may need a secondary cover for the drain. Polaris makes them. They sit on top of the drains. If you have VGB compliant drain covers, this can happen. Scott