I’ve had the same dresser since junior high. It’s a beautiful, old, unfinished wood dresser. In a few spots, if you look closely, you can tell that it was once painted a light green. I think my parents might have stripped it when they picked it up somewhere, but I’m not sure.

I had moved it out to the living room while I was getting some work done in my bedroom. Our space is pretty tiny (it’s a converted single-stall garage with a small added on room), and I really wanted to get the dresser back in the bedroom. There’s still a bit of work left, but I figured it was close enough and started removing the drawers so I could slide the empty dresser into the bedroom.

While doing that, I thought it would be a good time to condition the wood. It was looking faded and a bit dry. So I used a beeswax-based conditioner, working it into the surfaces of the dresser. It really looks nice!

In the process, I decided to make a few repairs on the drawers, as well. One drawer had quite a bit of damage to the bottom and sides. Several years ago, I repaired it as well as I could with the tools on hand, which, I learned upon examining the drawer today, must have included a hot glue gun. I figured I could do a better job with wood glue and clamps, plus I wanted to fix another drawer that had some significant cracks in the sides.

After starting on the first of the repairs, I picked up the second drawer, flipped it over, and discovered this spider and her seven egg sacs! She moved around a bit, but didn’t want to leave her eggs. So, I took a few pictures and then carefully got her and the egg sacs into a glass and took them all out to the shed, where I hope they have a good life with lots of food.

I have seen this species of spider many times. I remember cleaning up the old, incredibly dusty, dirt floor garage of a rental house I once lived at. I found lots of these spiders, some that were surprisingly large. I always thought their bodies looked strikingly similar to black widows, which I’ve also seen numerous times. After sending a picture of this one to my family, my sister identified it as a triangulate cobweb spider (Steatoda triangulosa), and it turns out to be in the same family as black widows (Theridiidae). So it seems the physical similarities are likely not just a coincidence. The cobweb spider is not known to be harmful to humans.