Check this out:
http://www.citlink.net/~hhous/spider001.jpg
I live in Oregon and I caught it in my garage. Is it a Hobo Spider? I sure hope not…
Yep, I would say that is a male hobo spider. Nasty critter, that. Bites like a brown recluse.
Sure looks like one to me.
Most likely not. The stripes on the cephalothorax are not a hobo spider charachteristic. This page has a list of questions used to rule out your beastie as a hobo. It’s probably an Agelenopsis species.
Ooh…your spider friend intrigued me, so I looked at that picture some more. Those aren’t stripes are they? And it has that pattern on the abdomen? Yes, you may have a hobo.
…totally non-helpful, but…
Your spider’s butt looks like a nutmeg nut.
Looking at this page, I’d have to agree with the others that it is a male hobo. However, I am not a spider expert. I’d never even heard of a hobo spider before now.
Yikes.
Holy Crap. That thing gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I see spiders like this in my garage all the time. Should I try to avoid them from now on? How bad is a hobo’s spider’s bite?
Well, they aren’t fatal, but they are nasty. See here.
Possible gross-out warning.
If it’s like a brown recluse it’s seriously f***ed up. I was bitten by a Mexican brown spider which is often mistaken for the recluse in appearance and bite effect. The bite area necrotizes. Mine was in the crook of my left arm and it looked like my arm was rotting off at the elbow. it was actually but the dead flesh didn’t go to deep. Fortunately it healed with no scarring.
Yikes. I think I’ll keep a good distance.
There’s an animated GIF of a developing spider bite wound but the site is inappropriate to post here. I’ll see if I can get a copy.
Thanks for the answers, folks. I guess the consensus is that my little friend is probably a male hobo spider, and had he bitten me, I would have been in moderate to serious trouble. I’ll be more wary of dark corners in my garage from now on. I’d known about Hobo Spiders for awhile, but I never expected to actually meet one!
In his defense, the little guy was surprisingly unaggressive. I used a pen to prod him into position for his photo shoot, and he never once attempted to bite the pen. All he wanted to do was run away and hide, and whenever he was trapped in a corner, he would fold his legs against his body and curl into a little ball to protect himself.
In fact, I felt so sorry for him that I didn’t kill him. I drove him a few blocks away from my house and let him go in the bushes. I only hope he manages to live a peaceful existence without further contact with human beings – I’d feel guilty if he bit somebody someday because I failed to end his life when I had the chance.
Mean Guy, after reading your last post, I think you have to consider changing your username, just aint appropriate any more
Retief