Just to add to fears of the arachnophobic amongst you all -- did you know that spiders are quite happy to be air-born? And use air currents to spread around their habitats.
Living on the third floor, when they start coming indoors for the winter, (mine come in through the roof and squeeze through tiny gaps around pipes into the flat) they get dropped over the balcony into the bushes below. Their immediate reaction isn't t to curl up into a ball but to spread their legs out and glide gently down. The hairs on their legs act like wind-breaks and sails. It's annoying when I see them land on the wall instead of a bush and promptly start climbing back up towards my flat.
Working in gardens it's very common for bits of stray web to land on my face and arms. Small spiders spin out lengths of the stuff into the breeze and when long enough lift off to be carried away to a new home.
Even larger ones use the breeze to perform trapeze jumps covering longer distances than they could by walking. It also makes good sense for them to use the wind to change where they live -- where the wind blows them it will also blow their prey.
On a sadder note, The Orb Spiders that are such a beautiful feature of Autumn mornings when their webs are covered in tiny jewels of dew are noticeably fewer this year. A result, I suppose, of the continuing decline of our wild-life in general and in this case of flying insects, all of which are in steep decline.
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