Spiny orb weaver neighbors

On our pool deck, we have a spider species who love to spin webs in the most inopportune places like on the chairs and in the path of getting to the chemicals. These spiders are beautiful, small, and don't prove to be a bother other than their choice of where they set up their homes.

Recently, they have multiplied, or so it seems. It could be I'm outside by the pool more than in the past. I use my net to remove them from my path, and although I relocate them outside the pool deck, they are back the following morning or worse, outside the door where I need to exit.

Jim Stafford said it best when he sang the song, Spiders and Snakes. I don't like spiders and snakes.

We each have our places, and as long as we don't cross paths, I'm good. If these spiders would not build houses where I need to place my butt or where I need to walk, I'd be happy with them sharing my pool deck. And I've told them this.

Recently, I cleaned the windows in my Steelers room--in and out of the house, up and down on a ladder--navigating furniture on the patio and pool deck. As the sun peeked and the heat got to me, I thought about sitting on a chair outside one of the windows I was cleaning. Until I noticed something odd. On the back of the chair was a lime green circle. Upon closer examination, I took it to be a cocoon of some sort. Needless to say, I did not sit down.

My first thought was to squish it, but my older daughter--the one who captures and removes all living things from our house--has obviously gotten to me. I left it alone.

A few weeks later, I noticed another lime green cocoon on the underside of my umbrella on the pool deck. I did what anyone would do.

I Snapchatted it to my peeps and asked if anyone knew what the hell this thing was. Most of the responses were along with my own thoughts.

"Ugh."

"Whoa, what is that?"

"Whatever it is, can't be good."

Only one person responded helpfully. This came from my Snapchat streaker Emily--711 daily SnapChat streaks!

As soon as I saw it, I was like...why didn't this occur to me? While spider sac did pop into my head, it didn't look like what I'm used to, and so I didn't venture further in my thoughts.

Me: "Holy crap, it's the spider on my pool deck! Of course, this is it."

Boss: "What kind of spider?"

Me: "Spiny Orb Weaver"

Boss: "Oh, those are great spiders. They will keep areas free of insects. Like mosquitoes."

Me: "I don't have an insect problem on my pool deck, and I do not have mosquitoes."

Boss: "Exactly."

Yeah, okay, but a whole new crop of babies? In my pool deck? I turned it over to my husband. He relocated the sacs. Then I worried for a few days that the mothers were frantically searching for their babies.

Finally, I gave up. Knowing my husband, those spiders weren't relocated far. A reunion on my pool deck is most likely inevitable. In the scheme of spiders, I could do worse.