My primary world, home of the original Glass Island and Skyrail system.
My modded world, featuring the delightful 
Super Hostile - 
Planting my precious pair of mushrooms to avoid losing them to any more falling deaths seemed like a good idea, and it just so happened I had some nice empty real estate from sand mining. Now if I can just find some brown mushrooms, I'll have everything required for an infinite supply of delicious mushroom stew.
As you might recall, I have something of a spider infestation. If you don't, here's a visual reminder.
The location of the spawner has eluded me thus far, and to get a better idea of where the spiders are coming from, I needed to build a lower viewing platform. Easier said than done. For one, building anything outside was completely out of the question. That left building from inside the tree, carefully working my way out one block at a time.
This was going to be a very risky build.
There were so many spiders that they began swarming up around the sides of the trunk, skittering across the bark and ambushing me by the corner. Only the one block wide ledge was saving me from complete spider assault.
For self-preservation, I decided a simple ledge was not enough - a fully encased walkway was needed, rooftop protection included. Getting it built was no simple task with half a dozen spiders out for blood. While I didn't manage to finish without suffering some bites, I did avoid falling to my probable death. Finally encased in precious glass, I thinned the population by luring them into a cactus patch and rushed upstairs to watch for the spawn.
The spiders were appearing at the back of my tree, away from the water. Maybe the spawner was hiding under one of those small trees? Heading back to the basement, I tunnelled around like a mole, chewing up every tree and other possible hiding place I could think of. The "dark cave" music played intermittently, which did nothing to assuage my worries. There had to be a spawner! I was certain of it, no other possibility accounted for so many arachnids.
Days pass, I'm no closer to my goal.
I'd been standing literally two blocks away from it for weeks. Here at last, the spawner was revealed in all its sinister glory. My first instinct was to destroy it immediately... but then I'd be without a ready supply of string. Going outside to hunt spiders was likely suicide, and string was my source of wool for beds, bows and fishing poles. Carefully blocking off the spawner with torches and a door, I sat down to think.
Torches alone wouldn't stop the spawner from producing spiders, as I quickly found out.
Somehow I was going to have to light up the entire area in range, and build a spider slaying trap. That was going to be difficult without any lava nor a bucket to move water with. I think for now it might be best to leave things as they stand - an uneasy truce.
