Dreaming of Spiders... sort of

Last night, well, technically this morning after I answered the phone and went back to sleep, I dreamt about tarantulas. Not just any tarantulas, and many more than one... It happened like this:
   My friend and I were outside in the back yard making plans for an outdoor party. A character portrayed in the dream by the name and image of my ex-husband is checking out the grass and decides we need to put a picnic table at a location too close for comfort to a native animal's freshly dug hole. Indoors, he explains that tarantulas, oh look! there they are! Gray like a mouse, and not much bigger... are really not aggressive and he just likes to have them around. Apparently, this man is moving in with me but not as a romantic interest. Upon learning about the tarantulas, which are roaming freely about the house and climbing on me, I tell him this is not going to work. The tarantula that has climbed into my hand (not by invitation) senses my tension and begins to rear up in strike position. I toss it aside, and I make my point that the tarantulas will be a nuisance (and a terror) to guests. I remember feeling relieved that the moving process was not too far underway and he could easily move back to his previous roommate within a day or so.
   Keep in mind, I am not afraid of much. Spiders don't freak me out. The tarantulas did not freak me out even when they were climbing on me. I just did not want them wandering loose wherever they pleased. I worried one would crawl into the bed and I would roll over on it or startle it and be a victim of a nasty bite, or they would get into the pantry and into the food. Plus, I was worried my friends would be less relaxed if there were big hairy spiders and would set one off and become a victim also.
   So, non-weaving big hairy tarantulas that are not menacing but are nonetheless a nuisance, the idea of my ex-husband and myself on amicable terms, friends/family frequently invited to my house for food and fellowship.... I have never dreamt about tarantulas in the past. This is a  new symbol for me. Web-making spiders I understand, vicious spiders I understand (like snakes, mean animals)... and more than one. There is a message in the numbering. It is significant that there was not ONE spider, but several (not a throng, but maybe more than a few... maybe four or five? all mouse-gray... just alike).
   I am going now to look up gray tarantulas in wikipedia... I once dreamed of a white rhinocerous. Turns out the message in in knowing something about the animal (how it moves, hunts, eats, protects itself, etc). Maybe the tarantulas are a similar totem?