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Spiders

Spiders belong to a group of animals called “arachnids”. Arachnids are creatures with two body segments, eight legs, no wings or antennae, and are not able to chew. There are more than 30,000 different species of spiders. Most spiders have poor eyesight. Their legs are covered with tiny hairs. These hairs pick up vibrations and smells from the air to help the spider locate prey and avoid danger. All spiders have fangs and most have venom. Fortunately, most spiders will not harm people. Spiders eat by injecting their prey with venom that dissolves the victim’s insides and then sucking the liquid out of the body. All spiders produce silk but not all spiders spin webs. Hunting spiders that do not use webs to catch their pray use silk to build smooth walls in burrows, build egg sacs, and assist them in climbing. Spiders also use silk to do what is called “ballooning”. Ballooning is when a spider will release enough silk to be caught in the wind and float to another location. Ballooning can potentially carry a spider for several miles. Spiders do have predators. Larger animals, such as birds and lizards hunt them. One of the spider’s worst enemies is the Mud Dauber. Mud Daubers are solitary wasps that build the small mud chambers on your home. The Mud Dauber will kill a spider, stuff it in the mud chamber to feed the egg of the baby wasp that will emerge.

WOLF SPIDER

There are over two hundred species of Wolf spiders living in North America. They vary in size from ½ inch to 4 inch leg span. They have unique eyes with eight ocelli. They are long legged and covered with short hairs. They are grey to dark brown in color with several darker stripes. Wolf spiders are hunters, they do not build webs. They are considered a beneficial spider. They live outside in small holes in the ground or under debris and wood piles. While they are capable of biting humans their venom is not considered dangerous.

ORB WEAVER SPIDER

There are approximately 2500 species of Orb Weaver spiders in North America. They vary widely in appearance. The best identifiable characteristic is their web. These are the stereotypical webs you see in movies and Halloween decorations. Orb Weaver spider webs are large, circular and symmetrical. They often stretch large spans across pathways and between bushes, trees and structures. The Orb Weaver spider may completely tear down the web and rebuild it on a nightly basis. They are capable of biting humans, but their venom is generally not considered dangerous.

JUMPING SPIDER

There are over 300 species of Jumping spiders in North America. There is quite a bit of diversity in their appearance. In general they are stout, hairy spiders, with short, strong legs. They often have colorful hairs (red, yellow, white) on top of their abdomen. The Jumping spider's major unique characteristic is its enlarged middle front pair of eyes. They are hunting spiders. While Jumping spiders are capable of biting humans, they are generally considered harmless. Their venom is of no particular consequence to humans. Jumping spiders tend to be active during the day. This is due to the fact that they need light to see their prey. They also have the ability to jump 20 times their body length in order to escape a threat.

CELLAR SPIDER

There are several dozen species of Cellar spiders in North America. They are often referred to as a “daddy-long-legs”, however, that would be a different species all together. Cellar spiders have very long legs, about 2 inches. They are yellow to brown in color. Cellar spiders are not capable of biting humans. Except for their webs, which get everywhere, they are harmless. Cellar spiders hang upside in their web and will visibly shake if disturbed.

BROWN RECLUSE

The Brown recluse spider is light to dark brown in color. It has a dark pattern on its cephalothorax that resembles a violin. Several other spiders have similar markings. The brown recluse spider has six eyes arranged as three pairs across the front of the cephalothorax. This eye arrangement is unique to the Brown recluse and is a better way of identifying it. The Brown recluse is very common in structures. It prefers to take harborage in areas of inactivity such as under clothes and behind furniture. It is a hunting spider, not building a web to catch its food. The Brown recluse is capable of biting humans and its venom is cyto-toxic. This causes tissue death at the site of the bite. Experts believe that most skin infections blamed on the Brown recluse bite are actually bacterial infections. This is particularly true in areas (northern California) with a high rate of reported bites and low confirmed presence of the spider.

BLACK WIDOW

The Black widow spider is the most dangerous spider in the United States. Females have a shiny black body with a red “hourglass” pattern on the underside of the abdomen. Males have the same pattern, however, their color is brown to white. Only the female Black widow can bite humans. Her bite will inject a neurotoxin which can be very serious and potentially deadly. After three months the female Black widow will be an adult and begin to reproduce. As an adult she will live about six months. In that time she will produce as many as nine egg sacs with approximately 350 babies per sac. Black widows tend to build their webs in areas where they will not be disturbed. The black widow web is easily identified because it is not symmetrically built like most spiders and it is made of extremely strong silk which is very sticky.