Every year, there’s a little freak-out from Seattle communities about spider season.

Seattle’s annual spider season has arrived, driven primarily by mature male giant house spiders actively searching for mates indoors during August and September.

We never noticed anything in particular about spiders in the fall when we lived there. I suspect it’s nothing but a media-fed frenzy that has little connection to reality.

It’s also not a Seattle thing. We get a surge in spider visibility in the fall, too, and it’s simply because some common spider species that live near humans are in frantic mating mode as the warm weather starts to go away. Relax.

I will say, though, that one spider-fact that’s special about Seattle is the swarms of cross spiders, these spectacular orb-weavers, that are everywhere. I remember them from when I was a kid. Or rather, maybe what’s special is that where I live now is totally lacking in Araneus diadematus. We’re in a weird hole in its range.

A colleague found this lovely grass spider scampering about the hallways, and she brought it to me (this is a routine event every Fall). I happily took it and brought it home, in my left hand.

Then as I was leaving the science building, I spotted a lovely bold jumper on the glass door. Of course I caught it in my right hand.

I’m hurrying home with spiders in each hand, and when I got home, there was a zebra jumper waiting on the door. I thought about pulling a Darwin and popping one of them into my mouth so I could catch the third, but I didn’t want to traumatize any of the spiders, so the zebra jumper was let off, and is having a lovely time in the garden, where all of them eventually ended up.

My wife keeps coming home from work with spiders she rescues.

They’ve been invading her work place. This is a common event as the weather cools — the males are desperately looking for last-minute mates, and are checking out even the unlikely places.

Now I face a problem. They are escaping the cold wet weather, is it really a kindness to release them outside? We haven’t had a freeze yet, so it’s probably OK to let them go in the dating pool of my yard. A little later, I might start turning them loose in the basement party room.

She’s beautiful.

Argiope bruennichi

The colloquial name is the wasp spider, and they’re not normally spotted in Cheshire, but one was found in a recent survey. There is some concern when a non-native species shows up — is this a sign of climate change? Also, English northerners are not accustomed to these big honkers.

“You know your big, chunky house spiders – the ones you think are massive and frighten the life out of you in your living room? A female wasp spider is probably a bit bigger than those,” said Scott Wilson, head of field programmes at the zoo.

I’d be thrilled and surprised if I saw a wasp spider — they’re native to Europe and North Africa, and I haven’t seen any here. We instead have two equivalent native species, Argiope aurantia and Argiope trifasciata (we have a lovely A. aurantia living in our backyard right now). Maybe they are a sign of a warming trend in the UK, but they are quite nice animals, inoffensive and helpful in clearing out your grasshoppers and crickets. They just look a little intimidating. Don’t be frightened.

This is Carina, a Pholcus living under our cupboards who has been expanding her empire to the backboards.

This bold jumper was hanging on my doorknob when I got home. She’s probably selling something…I would like some of those iridescent patches.

I was checking on the Argiope female in my backyard, and discovered that she has a little friend, in a web about 10cm away.

It’s true that the female of the species dwarfs the little males, but look at the gigantic, pendulous palps hanging off the boy. He’s all male.