A spider web — and a skittish mail carrier —prevented a Dartmouth, N.S., man from getting his mail for more than a week.

Kevin Keating noticed his letters had stopped coming after a few days, but received no notice from Canada Post.

"We just thought the mail was being stolen," he said Wednesday.

Keating made multiple phone inquiries about his lack of letters, but it took eight days for him to learn the reason for the stoppage.

A carrier delivered a handwritten note on the back of a letter explaining simply, "Spider webs," followed by the date.

Keating then learned his regular postal worker would not cross the path to his front door because there was a spider web across it.

'What's next, ants?'

Keating rarely uses that walkway to his front door and so had not noticed the web. He brushed it down when he got the note and his mail service has resumed.

Keating was not impressed by the delivery drought. "Yes, there was a spider. Is that a reason for not delivering my mail? What's next, ants?

"I just want another letter carrier. I just want my mail."

Keating has since gotten into the Halloween spirit early by erecting a large plastic spider above his mail box.

"My daughter, who is 12, she had a spider in her play house, so I thought since it's Halloween, I'd put it near the mail box and see what she thought of that," he said.

Canada Post said safety is a major issue for letter carriers, but that the carrier in question may have been overzealous in shutting down delivery when faced with a spider web.