Male adults deposit eggs, approximately 400 at a time, into a silken sac. In a lifetime, which averages about 1 year, the female will lay around 4,000 eggs. The gestation period for eggs is one week. Offspring go through a series of “instars,” or transformations where the spiderlings molt and develop before reaching maturity; male offspring go through six instars, while females undergo seven. After hatching, house spiders use “ballooning,” a process by which spiders release silk from their spinnerets into the air thereby allowing the wind to carry them to another locale, to leave the nest.
