Lots of rain means lots of bugs means lots of food for spiders.

And that means lots of spiders.

"I've been observing spiders for 30 or 40 years or so and this seems to be the year of the spider," said spider expert Mike Howell, a retired Samford University professor who co-authored a definitive book on the eight-legged creatures, "Spiders of the Eastern United States: A Photographic Guide."

Of course, Howell is retired now and admittedly is basing his assessment on anecdotal observations.

But "from what I'm seeing there appears to be 10 times more spiders than in any of the previous 10 years," he said.

"We have had a mild winter and a wonderful spring with lots of water. When you have lots of water you have a lot of insects. There's just a lot more bugs out there for the spiders."

A typical example is the large black and yellow garden spider that makes the orb web with a built-in zig-zag -- very noticeable, very beautiful, if you're a spider lover, Howell said.

And you should be. A spider lover that is.

Howell said of the estimated 1,000 spider species in the state of Alabama, only about two or three deliver a bite that might be considered dangerous, most famously the brown recluse and the black widow. The brown widow, a relative newcomer to much of Alabama, also packs a venomous bite.



Spiders are helpful in that they trap and devour insects that humans consider pests -- mosquitoes and flies, for example, Howell points out.

So spiders are good, Howell said, even if their methods might seem a little, well, creepy.

Once the insect is trapped in the web, the spider's bite is used to paralyze the insect. Still alive, the insect is mummified as the spider wraps its prey into a web cocoon.

That's so it can save the insect to eat later.

"The spider injects the insect -- while still alive -- with enzymes to make a slushy goo inside the body, like a milkshake, which it then sucks out," Howell said.

But 95-plus percent of the spiders' don't have venom powerful enough to do much damage to a person.

"I've been bitten a number of times with no ill effect, sometimes some local tingling," Howard said.

But if it's a brown recluse or black widow, medical attention may be needed, said Ann Slattery, supervisor of the Regional Poison Control Center at Children's of Alabama hospital.

A black widow delivers a neurotoxin that can be very painful at the bite site within 30 minutes, Slattery said. Within three to four hours, there may be painful cramping with the muscles moving under the skin.

"The abdomen can become board-like rigid," she said.

The venom of a brown recluse isn't quite so potent as that, although it can cause problems, occasionally serious ones. The venom kills skin tissue around the site of the wound and in rare cases can become systemic and break down blood cells, she said.

All scary sounding indeed, but as Sallie Lee, urban regional extension agent in Jefferson County, points out:

"Most times the spider is just as anxious to stay away from you than you from it."

Lee said she doesn't really know if the number of spiders is greater this year than in the past as phone calls to the extension office about spiders has been average. But her personal tale of one spider's persistence might say something about this year's crop of spiders.

Lee described one particular spider at her house who keeps rebuilding its web after she forgetfully knocks it down.

"Every morning I forget and walk through it," she said, laughing. "But the spider rebuilds it faithfully -- that spider is going to lay some strong eggs. You can catch a hummingbird in some of those webs."

Got a spider in your backyard? Post a picture in the comments below.