Your answer to the question “How do the spiders outside an upper-story window in a high-rise get there?” seems to imply that the spiders that reside on the upper stories of high-rise buildings are tiny.
I can tell you first-hand that these spiders are not “less than a millimeter or two” The spiders that reside outside my 32nd floor windows are HUGE. Not Jay Leno, dog eating huge, but about 3-4 times the size of a normal house spider.
I find it very hard to believe that these jumbo spiders have flown their way to my window on strings of silk. The other problem with your answeris the unbelievable tenacity and plain old stubbornness of these spiders. Their complex array of webs are destroyed on a regular basis, by rain, wind, window washers, and my broom. Yet every time, the spiders return - normally within 2-3 days.
I always assumed that the spiders had some sort of “nest” on the roof. Are you sure of the dope you’re slinging?
While the silk parachute is indeed one answer to some spiders, perhaps people are bringing them in also. In their packed stuff when moving, in their grocery bags, kids bringing them in a jar, sitting in a cardboard box full of cleaning supplies in a maintainance closet, etc…
And, what’s to prevent some from simply climbing up from the ground or down from the roof?
Are we to take the silk parachute answer as the only possible answer?
Spiders that fly are, indeed, tiny. However, they don’t have to remain tiny forever. Maybe the jumbo spiders on the 32nd floor are just grown up baby flying spiders.
Spiders do grow bigger, and they can establish large standing populations as long as a few individuals of the same species reach a place that has an adequate food supply. Basically, the observation of a thriving population of huge spiders in a high-rise does not diminish the likelihood that they originally got there by ballooning. Sure, it isn’t impossible that they got there by climbing, but it’s not quite as likely compared to the hundreds or possibly thousands of airborne spiders that are dropping onto that building every summer day.
Thanks for the response Doug. Now to put your knowledge to the test!
My sister lives in the building next door to mine. Her windows face the same direction (East and North) and she lives on the 23rd floor. Her building is the same vintage as mine and of similar design. However, her windows are completly spider-free, while mine are covered in them.
