Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the latest specimen that I have confronted. Legs extended, it is nearly the size of my hand. Feel free to identify if you can. I only let it live long enough to take the photo.I still haven't stopped shuddering at the thought of that thing. I think I'm going to have to nuke my house from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
8 comments:
Looks like a Black-and-yellow Garden Spider to me...
http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recnum=IS0107
It looks like it's mostly harmless.
Looks like it, but mine was at least twice the size of the listing. And don't forget, mankind has been described as "mostly harmless" as well.
Thanks for the link, though. It looks like it'll be useful for identifying all sorts of critters around here.
Hope your back is getting better.
Just so you know I was actually, physically crying while I looked this up.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html
It's a black-and-yellow, just like rtag said.
It's probably just bigger because pretty much every single creepy crawling thing grows bigger in warmer places.
Also, forgot to say, the 3/4 to 1 1/8 inch measurement is just the body length, so that may explain the perceived discrepancy in the size. In females, which are much much larger than males.
Oh no, no, no... please don't kill any more! The orb weavers are *good* spiders! They eat all sorts of nasty garden pests! Their webs are marvels of engineering! Think of Charlotte's Web!
Believe me, I sympathize because we have more spiders here than I'm used to, and all around the house too. But then I read words of wisdom that ended up to be a great comfort:
"If you *have* spiders, you *need* spiders."
I'll try to relocate rather than killing them in the future, but I will make no promises. I've let many a spider live around my place (I'd never have time for anything if I tried to get rid of them all) but when they start to get large enough that small birds could be potential meals (even if it doesn't say that they eat them) I start looking for a broom. Yeah, that's right. I wasn't even manly enough to step on it. You got a problem with that?
I do find it mildly ironic, though, that I really had no big quarrel with the black widows, but this much more harmless (and likely more beneficial) spider got terminated with extreme prejudice.
Dude... S. and I miss you like crazy, but there is no way in hell I'm coming anywhere near your house. You've been finding bigger crawlies than I *ever* saw in Dallas.
I absolutely agree with Amy! Few bugs are allowed to live if I ever find them in my house, but spiders are always spared. (Not inside, of course, they get "relocated" to the great outdoors.)
A couple of good traditional explanations to let spiders live can be found here and here.
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