The not so itsy bitsy spider.

I think, this is a regular harmless garden spider boomerang.
We have lots of them around here - you almost can throw
a saddle on them, that's how huge they are.
Their net is usually very big and they spin it the way you
described.

We had one outside the patio window of my daugther's
room and every day we watched the spider activities there -
quite interesting.

gustav, the brown recluse is mostly found in the desert areas where it is dry and very hot.

Oh good!

The spiders in our yard make a much more typical web out in the open. It is only under rocks that I find these nesty ones.

Has your spider ever looped up little balls?

I know I keep returning to this but it was just so strange to watch.

the site showed it to be a hobo spider, boomer, but I'm no entomologist, honey.

C.J. just recently, a friend of mine in Virginia was bitten by a brown recluse. I think that fellow has migrated.

The hobos are migrating too -- they're making their way down from Seattle.

My brother in law got bit by a brown recluse on the end of his nose! They had to cut a big chunk of his nose off and he went to the doctor on the day that it happened because even though it didn't yet look weird, it felt weird.

Hm, I don't know if they looped up balls boomerang, we
always watched when it caught a prey and how she wrapped it in.

Ay Miss Letty, and I was so sure, we never will see
a brown recluse here where it is moist from the coast....

We often watch the "Animal Channel" (very educational
for kids) and they have a show about a hospital in Yorba Linda, CA where all severe cases from spider and snake bites
will be transported to. The physician in charge (hippie with
ponytail) is extremely knowledgable about spiders (and snakes).

Your post almost reads like a poem, CJane, especially that second paragraph!

I saw a thing on Animal Planet about platapus bites, or stings, or quills or whatever those weird animals do, and the doctors who treat, or more likely autopsy, the bitees.

Animal Planet is a great channel for both carnage and calm.

Anyway....

My spider didn't seem to have a sticky web -- a moth easily escaped from it.

Spiders make my skin crawl but they are very interesting to watch.

Hehe, being poetic about spiders

Yes, Animal Planet it is called (I love the funny animal videos).

Spiders are indeed interesting to watch and luckily, little Jane
has no fear of them (unlike me). We do have quite a lot of black widows down here but so far, I haven't heard from
anyone ever being bitten by one.

Interesting!

I suspect those little balls of being egg sacks. Prepare for blessed event.

Oh, Jeez. That would be eight tiny little booties X, well, however many.

Oh man oh man.

Another spider that got relocated this morning had an egg sack that was huge. I mean HUGE. I don't know how that spider moved. It was stupendous, amazing, circus freaky egg bulge.

<shudder>

We actually do relocate wildlife that we find around here and we didn't have the heart to crush Ms. Spider (huge ball weaving thing was another story) so she was relocated to Mr. Mouse's house.

Relocating said spiders was the only way any laundry was going to be done today. Mr. B is motivated by clean clothes.

But really, roger... do spiders spin cocoon type things? That could be exactly what we saw.

I remember when my sister used to have a habit of smoking a cigarette before bed. She would allow herself one cigarette per day and always kept a box of Marlboro Red by her bedside. She would get comfortable in bed, grab the pack, have her smoke, then drift off to sleep.

She hated spiders with a passion. She was scared to death of them.

I was about ten years old at the time and capable of mischief. When she was at work I emptied her cigarette pack and spent the day hunting down spiders. When I had filled the box I returned the pack to its place on her bedstand.

That night she opened the cigarettes as usual and all these spiders came racing out, running across her chest and toward her head.

The screams not only woke my parents but the neighbors as well.

Look, gustav was the original Dennis the menace!

Cocoon type things? That sounds more like a preserved insect. The egg sacks I'v seen (black widow) are little spherical things, about 1/8" diameter.

Oh yes, we do have widows around here. This is about the time of year they start looking for a roof over their heads. I'm fairly tolerant, but not my roof. Not widows, I mean. The others are okay. Following Quinn's suggestion, I generally get a can of orange spray paint to touch up their webs for halloween.

Male platypus have poison spurs on their back, webbed, feet.

I would be extraordinarily surprised if a human had ever been spurred, much less suffered any real harm, from a platypus!

Roger, are you sure you're taking about spiders here?

Yes, indeedy.

Really, dlowan?

The show I saw presented them as one of the most poisonest animals on earth that ejected some deadly neurotoxin.

I'm going to have to go looking now.....

Boomer there are octopuses in Oz which can kill a man.