Spider ID

[benjamming]

We have a few spiders around our new house (but no bugs really). Can someone ID this spider? It's one of the larger ones that we have seen.

Only 1 scorpion so far. It was in my pants pocket that had been in the floor overnight. I thought it was a piece of fuzz after wearing them for about 15 minutes. I reached in & pulled it out. I thought something was weird when I grabbed it b/c it sorta felt like little hairy feet. It didn't hurt me but I smashed it. Evidently I had folded it in half while pulling it out. Maybe that helped.

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[wantin150]

Looks like a Golden Orb Weaver, or writing spider.

 

[Pablo]

We need a shot of mori's hairy appendage again.

 

[jmac]

We had some of those and it is definitely an orb weaver but not a golden orb spider. Rather it looks like a yellow garden spider though we just called them fruit spiders for lack of a better name at the time. Best pictures I found are
http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/arachnoida/araneida/araneidae/argiope/aurantia-2v.jpg
or http://www.marion.ohio-state.edu/spiderweb/SpiderPictures/Araneidae/Argiope aurantia.htm

They are quite docile, non-aggressive and great for fly control. Really large webs and they normally would sit in the middle and when a little agitated (or bored or something) would cause the whole web to bounce back and forth and sit there bouncing back and forth in the web. Very nice spider to have around I would say.

 

[wantin150]

Nice photos! That's exactly the one I was referring to as the Golden. Learn something new every day!

 

[HardbodyLoyalist]

I've got about a dozen of them in my flower beds, along with 2 or 3 egg sacks. I've come to think of them of pets.

 

[Lonnie]

We have lots of orb weavers but they are really big and much more rounded in shape. I'm very careful not to disturb them. There is one outside my home-office window and it's fun watching him rebuild his web at night. When I smack a fly with a fly swatter I put the fly in his web and watch him go to work.

 

[moribundman]

Quote:

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When I smack a fly with a fly swatter I put the fly in his web and watch him go to work.

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What did your parents do to you?

 

[Camu Mahubah]

Spiders in the garden are the orginal bug zappers...

 

[Lonnie]

I rescued a big dragon fly out of one of the weaver's webs and carefully picked off the spider web bits with some tweezers. That stuff really sticks. After a couple of minutes the dragon fly was all clean and made a successful lift off and escape.

 

[benjamming]

Thanks all!

 

[alreadygone]

Have been around these big guys for years. Allways been curious, do they all die off in the fall and young hatch in spring, or do they go dormant and over winter?

Bob

 

[wantin150]

Keeping the Spider Thread alive! We need to sticky one of these.

Wife killed two more widows yesterday. One adult and a juvenile. Scary stuff. That's atleast 5 this year.

 

[Aldaris]

Quote:

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Quote:

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When I smack a fly with a fly swatter I put the fly in his web and watch him go to work.

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What did your parents do to you?

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It puts the lotion on its skin...

 

[moribundman]

... or else it gets the hose again.

 

[Al]

Is it one of these? They have a characteristic heavy weave on one part of their web..like a reinforced ladder. We have bunches of them about this time of year.