Like this:

I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of spiders. Perhaps because of the two traumatic events that happened to me when I was a young girl.

The first was when I was 3 1/2. I lived in Colorado at the time. I was in the back yard playing in the dirt and I somehow disturbed a Black Widow. She didn’t like that much and bit me. I screamed for my mom and all I kept telling her was a bug bit me. As the evening went on I got very sick and my mother took me to the emergency room. I don’t remember much but I do remember getting bit, screaming a lot, and I remember the doctor giving me shots.

The next experience I was about 9 years old. I went to camp. We were the first group of kids to arrive for the season. Our first night there we played “hide and go seek.”  I ran between two cabins and found myself in the middle of a huge web and got bit on the left side of my face. In a very short time the entire left side of my face blew up to the point of my eye being swollen shut and my ear look freakishly large. They never did determine what kind of spider it was and it permanently effected my vision and hearing on the left side.

Since then, any time I get a spider bite, I have a bad allergic reaction.

Now fast forward to today. A beautiful warm day in Big Sur. I’m sitting on my deck, taking a few moments to enjoy the peace when all of a sudden there are thousands of thin gossamer strands of spider webs floating towards me. They were back lit by the sun so they really showed up. On these strands were clumps of white. It looked like cotton.

They were landing on me, my deck, the house, all the plants and absolutely filled the railing on my deck.

Now, being the spider hater I am, this freaked me out! I wanted so badly to film it but the thought of these strands covered in spiders getting into my hair was too much for me to even think about it for more than a half a second.

I’ve lived in the mountains for more than half my life and this was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this. I ran in the house and looked it up on Google.

I was sure it would say it’s the spiders from mars or something. But here’s what I found.

It’s called “Ballooning”

Ballooning Spider

Spiders lay eggs, and the young spiders that hatch use silk to travel with the wind, according to information available on a conservation Web site.

The spiders climb to the tops of grass or tree branches  (in my case the tops of Redwood Trees) where they release strands of silk into the air until they are long enough to catch the wind and pull the spider into the air.

This allows young spiders to fly without wings and be carried to new areas quickly. This increases survival chances. (Oh that’s just GREAT!)

Baby spiders have no wings, but can fly as high as the highest-flying insects and birds! They do this with the aid of light winds and rising thermals. In fact, ballooning spiders often hit airplane windshields. Spiders have even been seen by airplane pilots flying at about 10,000 feet.

I’m still itching my head and feel like they are crawling on me. Gawd I hope I don’t have spidey nightmares tonight. I will definitely be working on happy thoughts before bedtime.

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