OMG PIM, I acn only imagine! LOLOL! I am truly not laughing at you, but the way you told the story is rather entertaining. I am not afraid of spiders, actually it is sort of the reverse. I find them fascinating! My ex-BF was attempting to write horror stories and decided to get a Tarantula to keep in a vivarium to "inspire" him. After he got the thing, he somehow decided he was going to make some extra money by breeding them and selling the babies to the local pet store. Next thing I knew, there were 3 vivariums and one of the spiders did make an egg ball (or whatever you call them). Now bear in mind, he was terrified of them which meant whenever they had to be fed or the vivariums cleaned then I was elected. I really didn't mind at all since I thought they were neat. Well, the babies started to hatch and were just beginning to crawl all over. Unfortunately, he had failed to replace the regular screen top (about 1/2 inch "holes") with a finer mesh. He went in a few mornings later to check the brood and not a single baby was there. He asked me if I new what happened to them and when I went to look, I found a couple of the babies on the wall and floor behind the vivarium. Sure enough, all 300+ had climbed out of the tank, through the screen and were all over the room that we used as an office. Needless to say, he came completely unglued at the thought of all those baby spiders crawling around the house.... I caught the ones I could find, but unfortunately most of them ended up dying. I was vacuuming up dead baby spiders for weeks it seemed. He ended up taking the adults back to the pet store and that was the end of the Tarantulas. And as far as phobias.... mine is snakes. I don't want them anywhere near me or my house. YUCK! Alexa

I have lots of those stripy legged spiders this year too. They are busy decorating my yard for Halloween. Does anyone else remember a product called the Bug Stick? I got one from the Vermont Country Store for my MIL who was terrified of spiders. It was basically a shower poof (ladies, you'll know what I'm talking about here) & a simple PVC plunger mechanism. You could pick up an insect in the soft net poof & release it unharmed outdoors. A very simple, ingenious invention. Probably saved a lot of spider lives, but it seems to have disappeared from the market.

I can understand your frustration. That sounds like the small problem I had. I had a bit of an infestation of Achaearanea tepidariorum (common house spider) in my basement and garage. I didn't mind the spiders, but the webs can be a nuisance. Based on what you describe, I'd wager that's the spider you're dealing with - or possibly Steatoda grossa. The good news is that they are harmless to you, and pretty much harmless to all but the smallest creatures. If you want, google the species names and see if the images match your culprits. Best of luck in getting rid of them. Poor spiders :( (just kidding)

One of the many orb weavers but obviously not currently in her web. She's quite pretty, isn't she? The orb weavers make a large flat web that resembles a multi-spoked wagon wheel. The spider hangs upside down in the center during the evening but usually hides during the daytime, staying somewhere to the side of the web.