>>1186793 In north Florida, it seems like every dead tree near any body of water will be covered in spiders. These spiders stretch their legs to the front and back in a stick-like manner, keep a very low profile, and rather than spinning webs between the branches, they just loosely coat the branches themselves. When dead trees fall in the water but haven't yet lost their branches, every branch out of the water will be coated in spiders.
I frequently encountered these "spider trees" back when I used to go kayaking. On narrow rivers, a fallen tree can easily span the entire river, leaving you with a choice to either portage around it (hugely impractical), or possibly go under, over, or through it. And by through I mean that what used to be the canopy is now at water level, so you can force your boat through the gaps, or by pushing/pulling branches out of your way. I always took a pair of tree loppers with me for the sake of convenience, widening the gaps and cutting a clear path through the canopies.
Going through tended to be the fastest route, and when you're going upriver, carefully pruning a path isn't all that difficult. But when you're coming back downriver, with the added speed of the current, it tends to try to send you crossways relative to the path you've previously cut. And so you get carried across your line and crash sideways into the canopy of the spider tree. When that happens, you will be completely covered in spiders. And if you do have a fear of spiders, you will get over it very quickly.
