Aack! What kind of Spider is this!

[Forrest Price]

OK, I heard a noise outside, opened the back door and nearly ran into this creature! ICK! First off, I DO NOT LIKE SPIDERS!!

First reaction was to grab the 12 gauge. Then thought of you fine folk, and thought maybe I could learn something here!

Did I mention...I really really really don't like spiders.

Anyone know what kind of beast this is?

I took a pic of it with a flash, and it lit up huge, which of course set the creepy thing into a flat out sprint across the web nearly resulting in me dropping the camera and screaming like a little school girl! However, check out the neat detail in the webbing and the leg hairs. Ick..

Yeeeeuuuccckkkkk! I don't like these things! It'd be a shame to have to move! Better him than me!

So what is it?!

[Don Baer]

I don't know what it is but don't send him my way..I'd use the 12 ga.

[Michael Cody]

Looks like a std cobweb spider to me.. check out the hot link pic..

Now as how to handle him, well I look at it this way. That spider is just one of God's creatures trying to make a living and survive. If they don't cause me any problems, I am not going go out of my way to cause them any problems. However build a web where I want to walk.. your greasy slimey spider guts on the ground, broom, whatever.. If'n it's causing you problems, squish him and be on about your business, if not the live & let live I say.

[Scott Donley]

It's the kind that hides under the covers and only comes out AFTER you turn out the lights

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It looks like a biguglysucka to me.....

[Vaughn McMillan]

If not a cobweb spider, it might be a wolf spider.

Here's one I found in my living room a few years back. I don't know what kind it is, but I liked the green parts.

72 Cropped LR.jpg

That pic's just for you, Forrest.

- Vaughn

[Dennis Peacock]

Well Forrest....from the looks of the 2nd pic? It's a Glowus-Alotumus spider. Mostly used years ago for flashlights. Besides that, they catch bugs and eat them. It's heathy to have them around and I hate spiders as much as you do, but living where I do? We need spiders around to help control the bugs. So I usually let them be..

[Mark Rios]

Actually folks that looks more like your run-of-the-mill garden spider (Argiope aurantia). The get big and they make big webs, unfortunately in some inconvenient places sometimes. Like right across your gate openings and walkways. They are excellent at their job of keeping the bug population down so move it if you can.

[Jim Becker]

It's called a "bad bug eating spider"...he/she is your friend!

[Curt Fuller]

Definitely an 8 legged bug zapper. Keep him around, with time you'll get to know each other better and he'll realize that you keeping the porch light on keeps him fed and you'll appreciate not having so many other bugs around.

BTW, that's a couple of awesome photos. You should send those to National Geographic or one of those nature photo contests.

[Forrest Price]

Garden spider huh? Still gives me a serious case of the Heebie-Jeebies! Guess I'll have our spider loving son (who thinks it's soooo funny I'm afraid of those critters) move it.

I've good cause to dislike them though:
1: Have been bitten a couple times. Once in my early 20's by a little tan colored sucker that gave me the nastiest looking black/purple wound that lasted for about 3 weeks and hurt like heck! My mother saw it and said I was probably lucky to be alive.

2: Had a Grandmother that would squish Black Widows with the heel of her hand on the window outside her front door when I was a little kid. Seriously messed me up I think.

3: Watched Curse of the Black Widow when I was a little kid. Remember that show, the lady turned into a giant spider?

4: Worked with an insulation company doing crawl under installs as part of the PG&E ZIP program in N. Cali. One house we had to use trench shovels to get under the joists, lay on our backs and pull ourself from one joist to the next. Well, just my luck I "pulled" myself nose to nose with a big old shiny black butted black widow female.....I freaked. The guy I was working with, had to drag me out, and soon after, I found another job!

Yup, I don't like spiders.

[Chris Giles]

Depending on his visibility during the day, he's probably going to end up making a nice meal for a passing crow. In the meantime, he will make short work of many flying insects. I'd leave him alone-he's a real beauty.

[Brian Hale]

It's the kind that hides under the covers and only comes out AFTER you turn out the lights

That is SOOOO cruel!!!!!

But funny as all get out!

Brian

[Frank Hagan]

I think I'd rent a crow.

My wife calls those "orb spiders" and she runs into them all the time in the fields (she's an "Agricultural Tech" for the state and runs around counting a specific bug in bug traps in the orchards). I have been relieved of my spider killing duties since she took this job. While I'm working up the courage with the biggest, longest squisher I can find and tenatively dancing around, she says "Oh, get out of the way" and flicks it with her finger into the next county.