The giant arachnids of Nova Scotia

There are these huge spiders all around the house. They don't get into the house, and they're actually pretty timid and flee whenever they see us, but you can't walk outside at all without going through a spider web. These guys are big and brown and build very large webs. The webs often extend from the house to the cars in the driveway. We also find them across the stairs on the deck, across the path to the trail behind the house, all over the garbage and compost bins, and all over the yard. If we could teach these guys to attack the the thieves, they'd be very handy.

The landlord denied that there were spiders here. He warned us about ants though. We've seen two microscopic little ants here so far. They'd be finger food for the big black ants back home, at least one of which I know for a fact hitched a ride across the border with us. I turned him loose in the yard, about one second before it occurred to me that I might be introducing a non-native species to Nova Scotia. If gigantic black ants overrun the province in two years, well, I'll be gone by then.

Note the spider on the top -- that's my blurry finger there, for a sense of scale.