By Louie Ferrera

There’s a monster living in our backyard. It only comes out at night, catching and devouring its prey in an elaborately constructed trap. This monster strikes fear into our hearts; a primal dread that sends shivers up our spines.

Ok, this “monster” is actually just a spider, an Orb Weaver spider to be exact, who my daughter Denali and I have affectionately named Junior. A month or so ago we literally stumbled upon it. Junior has chosen to weave its web across a narrow pathway between an Asian pear tree and a jasmine bush. Denali and I were walking into our backyard when I saw her recoil and shriek in fear. She had walked right through Junior’s web! Judging by what was left of the web, we figured it was one of those enormous garden spiders that we’ve seen from time to time in our yard. Right then and there, we hatched a plan. After dark we would head out with flashlights in hand to investigate. What we saw both horrified and fascinated us. Junior had completely rebuilt its web and was sitting in the center of it waiting for some unfortunate insect to fly in. This was by far one of the largest spiders either of us had ever seen. From its huge bulbous abdomen to its smaller head, Junior was at least an inch and a half long. Add in the legs and we were looking at one big ass arachnid!

Junior’s web is a marvel of engineering, it measures nearly two feet across. Of all the beautifully constructed homes in the animal world, from bird’s nests to the honeycomb inside a bee hive, I find a spider’s web like this one to be the most exquisitely designed of all. I think it’s pretty special having such a uniquely beautiful creature like Junior make its home in our backyard. We’ve since strung caution tape across the walkway so that Junior can live in peace and we can avoid the horrifying experience of walking through his web again. A spider like this is best left alone.

I think there’s a little bit of arachnophobia in all of us, especially me and Denali. Her paternal grandmother was an extreme arachnophobe, so perhaps that’s where we get it from. There’s just something about spiders that evoke a kind of primal fear in people. Except for species like Black Widows and the Brown Recluse, spiders are shy and harmless creatures that benefit humans by eating insects that we don’t want around. So, Denali and I go out every night to check on Junior. We shiver and we laugh at our squeamishness but keep our distance. We don’t want to tempt fate.