This spider is in the garden, and I've never seen one like it in the house or any house. The house has other kinds of spiders, less flashy. I suppose house spiders must go outside sometimes, at least to spread from one house to another, but I didn't expect this to be one.

The egg case looked like mud or clay, or something less dense like meringue or cake frosting, with swirls. I wonder what it's made of.

I have no idea about it's origin or reasoning, but these spiders live anywhere they can find a spot whether its indoors or out. They prefer covered sorts of spots like under eaves of houses (outdoors) and under benches (outdoors). I have tons of these spiders outside living on the walls of my house and under deck chairs, etc. I have never had one inside my house either. They are a cob web spider in the Theridiidae family and don't need much room to make any sort of elaborate web. I'm not trying to prove that my guess in correct or anything, just letting you know about Parasteatoda tepidariorums...if that happens to be what your spider is. :) I use common names because sometimes I think they are easier for people to say, but in reality, a lot of common names (of many bugs) have nothing to do with their 'identity'. This is going to be horrible and I shouldn't say it I know...but I feel compelled by my strange sense of humor. lol. Your name is 'G Whiz'...what if everyone who heard that name thought that you were a type of...um...'whiz'. Lol.

Oh and I think your egg cases are just like the P. tepidariorum's. You described them very well and they sound just alike.

The egg cases in photos already identified as P. tepidariorum look like paper. My spider's egg case doesn't. It may be new and still wet and subject to change in texture. I pick up that little bench and move it around every day, and I don't recall feeling web under the edge before.

I wanted an unrevealing screen name for privacy's sake. I made up "G Whiz" thinking the association would be with exclamations like "Gee whiz, isn't that strange!" No whiz implications were intended. It's easier to say than "Parasteatoda tepidariorum."

I understood your screen name ever since the first time I saw it (I like it too). I was just trying to make a stupid joke about how you sort of thought the name 'House Spider' meant that it had to live in a house. I was just trying to demonstrate how names can be deceiving depending on how they're interpreted. I am a horrible comedian though and I hope you didn't take offense to my unnecessary analogy. Are you upset with me?

I just think it shouldn't be called a house spider if it usually lives outdoors. The name is misleading. People speak of house spiders when they mean the ones that make small webs in corners of rooms. "Come and see our house spiders. They're in the garden." "Huh?"

"Come and see our house spiders. They're in the garden." "Huh?"

That was funny! :D

P. tepidariorum was just my first guess since it is SO common. There are other Theridids that are very similar looking, such as those in the Achaearanea genus.