I don’t know what kind of spider it is or whether or not he’s poisonous. He lives on my deck, between two of the rails in a great big web where he mostly just seems to hang out.
His legs are very long (for a spider anway) and banded with black and yellow and his body is also black and yellow (mostly black withs splotches of yellow). I can’t seem to find a picture of him in “Common Garden Pests”, which is a book someone gave me when we moved into the house.
I don’t want to make him go away. I like spiders and have seen lots of little gray ‘charlotte’ spiders in my yard, as well as a few of the bigger wolf-type spiders out by the fence eating the larger bugs.
I don’t think there is enough info in your post to ID the spider but you might try PEERS Pider Catalog. They have a search engine that allows you to input certain characteristics to generate an answer. I tried with what I have from your post but it apparently wasn’t enough and I didn’t get an answer.
I had a spider sitting here that I had killed shortly after moving into my new apartment after seeing a few of the same type in the span of about a day (yes, I kept it sitting around for a couple months in hopes of identifying it).
As far as I can tell, it’s a hobo spider. According to the link, “In 1996 the hobo became the third spider to be officially placed on the venomous spider list of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Sorry to hijack the thread… but does anyone know any other non-venomous spiders that look somewhat like the picture at that link? Please?
jharmom–he’s not a hobospider…the one in that pic doesn’t have ANY yellow on him and seems quite fuzzy. My spider is very…hard-looking (like a beetle) and has lots of yellow and his legs make him look like he’s wearing big yellow and black striped socks.
No no, I know yours isn’t a hobo–yours sounds like an orb spider of some sort. I’m saying I apparently have hobos around my apartment, unless someone can tell me of another spider that looks similar, and preferably isn’t venomous…
After doing some looking at the Texas A&M page and the PEER Spider page, I’ve decided he must be some sort of harmless, ordinary orbweaver or perhaps a type of Southern House spider.
I did find this quote interesting though, on the A&M page:
All the technology in the world cannot dissolve a spiderweb. Ain’t nature grand?
Dang…jharmon, if this is any help to you making you feel better, I just noticed the following bit on the PEERS web site (right up top no less): “This database has been developed to help with the identification of the species of spiders that will most likely be collected in the Blue Mountains Region of Northeast Oregon.”
Of course that doesn’t mean that Hobos can’t live in Texas too but it may be worth double checking.
I_Dig_Bad_Boys: What about the Orbweaver I linked to? Especially the picture in ‘Figure 11’ on that page?
Check out this web page. This guy WANTS to identify Hobo spiders for people for a research project (and his page was updated no less than a month ago so it seems he’s still in business). I bet he can tell you if it is a Hobo and if not what it probably is (one would assume he’d be familiar with similar looking types).
Check out this web page. This guy WANTS to identify Hobo spiders for people for a research project (and his page was updated no less than a month ago so it seems he’s still in business). I bet he can tell you if it is a Hobo and if not what it probably is (one would assume he’d be familiar with similar looking types).
I_Dig_Bad_Boys: That’s intersting that spider webs can’t be disolved chemically…I never knew that. However I do know they are highly flammable much to my wicked delight as a kid. Just be careful not to burn anything down (like the house the web is attached to) ;).
Boy, I’d sure like to see some more info on this. Because I just don’t believe it!
I’d be willing to bet that a good dose of concentrated sulferic acid would dissolve a spiderweb pretty easily! (Along with much of the window frame it’s on, some of the siding of the house, etc.)
Perhaps they meant “no chemical treatment that is safe to handle and not damaging to nearby surfaces”. Qualified that way, I could believe the statement. But it becomes pretty meaningless with those qualifications.
Just out of curiosity, why did you title the subject “Insect Fans…” when you have a question about a spider? I guess insect fans would know some things about spiders, too, but "Arachnid Fans"wold have been more specific.
I just gotta say that when I was using that search engine I had to quite cuz I was getting the creepies. Can’t stand those little rascals!
I_Dig_Bad_Boys ,
I don’t know where you live, but in the Pacific NW this little guy sounds like what we called a “garden spider.” Kinda pretty as spiders go? Does it make a spiral/disc-shaped web? Is this it?
Sounds like the Black and Yellow Argiope, pictured in the link in the post above. They’re common and harmless and very widely distributed in the US and Canada. According to my spider book, they like to hang head down in the center of their webs. Does it do that?
Phew, after reading more, it looks likely that mine isn’t a hobo spider (since Texas doesn’t appear to be anywhere near their range, and there are several related species that look similar). Thanks for putting my mind at ease… until I wake up with a necrotizing wound of some sort, of course…
jharmon, don’t worry even if it is a necrotic-venom spider. I’m…tasty to those creatures, having been attacked multiple times in my sleep. The hobo spider, last year, I got bit on my breast so the venom should have stayed in the fatty tissue for a long time, but I can’t even find a scar anymore. Just Neosporin and some gauze’n’tape for a few weeks. The worst thing was when some of the medical tape tore a chunk of my perfectly-fine skin off. >_< I hate medical tape.
Maybe it was a recluse-family spider? I don’t know what those look like in general, but there are brown recluses, and some of those (3 out of 8? or so when living near Houston) are necrotic too, I got bitten when I was a small child on my chest, and apparently that didn’t necessitate hospital visits or the like. Just lots of Neosporin and commands not to scratch it; though I have a funny circle scar from the bullseye that occurred. And I’m unlucky. Small brown fuzzy spiders seem to be the norm, so as long as you have your house sprayed regularly and don’t rummage around in old boxes and clothes you haven’t meddled with for a long time where nests might be, you should be fine. And if you do get bit by a necrotic spider, there’s a good chance it would be a dry bite (no venom) and you won’t get more than a regular insect bite. Nothing to worry about even if they are nasty ickies.
(PS - this information may be wrong, it’s what I’ve culled over the years from books and sites and may be outdated, but for the poisonings, I think I got it right, right? Please correct me if not.)
It was huge–including legs, about the size of a hand! The body was about 1 & 1/2 inches long. It was a female, with a big round abdomen.
I took it over to a friend’s house to show him, and stupidly left it there. He had a cookout, with much drunkenness, and someone killed the spider.
Quote:
It has been reported that adult female Dolomedes tenebrosus can have a menacing demeanor, striking viciously without yielding ground when harassed (Fitch 1963). Because of their large size, the fangs are certainly able to penetrate human skin. However, reports of humans being bitten by Dolomedes species are rare. A single known report indicates immediate burning pain at the site of the bite, followed by redness and minor local tissue necrosis (Sams et al. 2001).
