There are several of these in my back yard but this one is the biggest.
Her web is among the goldenrod, which is about to bloom.
She's about 3.5" from the tips of her legs.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2008 02:10PM by DaviDC..

We call those Writing Spiders around here.

Orb-weaver:

[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

I think there should be advance warning if I'm actually going to SEE a spider when I open the thread. You know, something like the "BANDWIDTH" warning. No, I'm not freaked by them, but I thought you were going to tell me about one, not show me one.

Since it's not a large file, I didn't think BANDWIDTH warning was necessary!
It freaks some of my friends out that I'm so fond of spiders.
This little jumping spider sat on the edge of my Mac last night for a couple of hours & didn't
move until I ejected a disk.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2008 02:09PM by DaviDC..

Quote
DaviDC.
There are several of these in my back yard but this one is the biggest.
Her web is among the goldenrod, which is about to bloom.

Is that actual size??? O M G !

No, I didn't mean the size of the image; I was talking about a "big picture of bug" warning, similar to what is sometimes posted to warn people about an image file that requires a lot of bandwidth. Yes, I opened the thread again, but I was quick and didn't look at spidey this time.

I know, I was just kidding. My wife always laughs when I freak out (well, mostly I do it for her reaction) finding spiders (any size) in the house or on our land as she picks them up and sez how cute they are.

BTW, she knows which ones not to pick up.

Are you going to offer it the standard $1 bribe?

If I saw that thing in my yard I would kill it after I gathered enough courage to go back outside.

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Around here we sometimes get really big brown spiders that make their way into the house. I'd say one every year or two. My last dog was really good about going after bees or flies, and I called him into the kitchen one day and showed him one of those spiders crawling across the floor. He came prancing in, ready to go, and then when he saw what I was pointing at he looked at me like I was out of my mind and turned around and left. Rather quickly, as a matter of fact. If I get one in the house, I suck it up in the Dustbuster and then put the whole thing outside for several hours. Often they can find their way back out again. I figure if they're smart enough to figure out how, they deserve to live - as long as they escape outside.

I had to give up being afraid of spiders, bees, and several other creepy crawlies after I became a mother. I was even doing pretty well on my fear of snakes until the time I had to share a bedroom with a boa constrictor. I don't think either the snake or I slept a wink all night; we were too busy staring at each other. Yes, he was in a big glass terrarium, but I didn't trust that glass. It looked pretty flimsy to me.

Now I'm going to have the heebie jeebies for the rest of the evening. I am a crippling arachnophobe.

The only reason I even clicked on the thread is that I thought it was about this:

[www.constructedperfection.com]

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Quote
elahon
Now I'm going to have the heebie jeebies for the rest of the evening. I am a crippling arachnophobe.

The only reason I even clicked on the thread is that I thought it was about this:

[www.constructedperfection.com]

Ah ha! So there would be a good reason to add a "BUG PICTURE!" warning to the subject line! elahon could have been spared the agony. I have finally gotten used to Steph's sig line. I just imagine the guy in a bowl, drowning in milk.

Amazing what some people are afraid of. Spiders are your friends... especially if you live someplace like I do that's infested with mosquitos, gnats, and other true undesirables. I have several spiders that have more or less taken up permanent residence in my apt -- I leave them alone, I'm happy to have them on duty and doing their job. I only wish they ate cockroaches, then I'd be thrilled beyond measure. Edit: oh, and I have a couple of them that apparently weathered out Gustav on my front porch-- one is an itty bitty orb weaver who has made a really cute tiny orb web, the other a regular garden spider but with some absolutely beautiful coloration on her body... green, black and yellow.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2008 04:26PM by PeterB.

>>I have several spiders that have more or less taken up permanent residence in my apt -- I leave them alone, I'm happy to have them on duty and doing their job.

PeterB, This is just a guess but I'm thinking you don't have a woman living with you.

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Quote
karsen
>>I have several spiders that have more or less taken up permanent residence in my apt -- I leave them alone, I'm happy to have them on duty and doing their job.

PeterB, This is just a guess but I'm thinking you don't have a woman living with you.

;) Right on, I'd say.

Lucky for me there's nothing up here in my house that needs the protection of a spider. They need to be outside where they can be useful.

Quote
karsen
>>I have several spiders that have more or less taken up permanent residence in my apt -- I leave them alone, I'm happy to have them on duty and doing their job.

PeterB, This is just a guess but I'm thinking you don't have a woman living with you.

No, I don't, but I guarantee that if I did, she would be the type to feel the same about it as I do.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Quote
karsen
If I saw that thing in my yard I would kill it after I gathered enough courage to go back outside.

Killing something that you don't like even though it's completely harmless? WHY?

Live & let live is my motto.

Besides, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE spiders because they eat all the annoying bugs which truly DO bug the heck out of me. I am always thankful for their contribution to keeping my property free of worse things - like flies.

Quote
AlphaDog
I had to give up being afraid of spiders, bees, and several other creepy crawlies after I became a mother. I was even doing pretty well on my fear of snakes until the time I had to share a bedroom with a boa constrictor. I don't think either the snake or I slept a wink all night; we were too busy staring at each other. Yes, he was in a big glass terrarium, but I didn't trust that glass. It looked pretty flimsy to me.

Boas are harmless!

Actually, fear of snakes & the desire to kill them out of fear and ignorance is one of the reasons I'm so drawn to them & the reason why I do educational programs to teach people about them.

Snakes appear to be staring when they're asleep - if the lights were out, he was probably snoozing and oblivious to you.

Flimsy glass doesn't matter - a snake isn't going to break through the glass. The only way they get out is if someone didn't close the lid properly or if there's a defect in the screen lid. Snakes are very good at finding defects but they won't break glass. They are strong but their strength is not in breaking glass.

I hate to tell you but both my mother and I have terrariums that have cracked glass panes. As long as the glass is stable and not sticking out, it's still suitable for use for housing snakes.

And they really are sweet creatures - we even have a couple that know how to throw balls. They're a lot like fur-less, leg-less puppy dogs.

I was wondering when you were going to respond to that. Trust me; I have no desire to get close enough to a snake to kill it. That should give them some comfort, don't you think?

Quote
Stephanie
Killing something that you don't like even though it's completely harmless? WHY?

Guess you're a vegetarian, eh?

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[www.zeemaps.com]

Quote
Stephanie

And they really are sweet creatures - we even have a couple that know how to throw balls.

Probably only fast balls? No change ups or breaking balls?

Awesome spider shots! I am a fan as well. My vegetarian fiancée is not! She doesn't understand why I always gingerly scoop them up and let them go outside instead of just killing them.

We all have our own shortcomings! Me, I eat meat. Just not spider meat!

Quote
The UnDoug

Quote
Stephanie
Killing something that you don't like even though it's completely harmless? WHY?

Guess you're a vegetarian, eh?

Heh, you eat spiders, Doug?

Stephanie wasn't entirely accurate. Not only are they harmless to us, but they are benificial because they help to eliminate insects that are pests to us.

Quote
Stephanie

Quote
karsen
If I saw that thing in my yard I would kill it after I gathered enough courage to go back outside.

Killing something that you don't like even though it's completely harmless? WHY?

Live & let live is my motto.

Besides, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE spiders because they eat all the annoying bugs which truly DO bug the heck out of me. I am always thankful for their contribution to keeping my property free of worse things - like flies.

People are scared of what they don't understand. That spider looks scary as heck to me. I wouldn't know if it was poisonous or not, and having children I wouldn't want to take a chance on it.

I've got no problem with lizards, snakes or bats. But spiders... We all have our weaknesses.

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I'm not full-blown phobic, but I am scared of some spiders. I'm much better than I used to be.

I have a couple different kinds of spiders in my house. Most of them are pholcus phalangioides, called cellar spiders, daddy long legs spiders, or cobweb spiders (but there is also an entirely different species called cobweb spiders).

These I leave alone because they just stay in their webs and catch insects. In the summer when I have windows open, I have a significant problem with tiny flying insects which are small enough to come right through the screens. The cobweb spiders (which is what I call them) help keep these under control without asphyxiating myself with bug spray. As a footnote, a lot of these pesky flying things love to fly around and land on my monitor and though smaller, look much like the sig that Grateful11 (I think it was him) had that caused people to swat their monitors. ;)

The other kind of spider I have (or had because I'm close to eradicating them) is a hunter that I haven't been able to identify. They look almost exactly like brown recluse spiders except without the violin-like marking. They also look very similar to an Australian species that I read is extremely venomous.

They don't use webs to trap prey but just crawl around and hunt. In my office they are constantly crawling across my desk, keyboard, reference table or me. They also seem to like coffee. ;) In the kitchen they are constantly hiding in whatever niche they can find in my coffee mug or coffee pot. Once after pouring a mug of coffee, I ended up with spider soup instead.

Not only are they annoying but since I'm somewhat afraid of spiders, they freak me the hell out. So while I tolerate and even welcome the cobweb spiders, these other hunter-type spiders I kill on sight. In fact I go to great lengths to kill them.

As you might know from another post, I'm fine with any spiders outside my house.

Years ago I had a roommate who used to transplant cobweb spiders around the apartment. It was an old building with wooden screens & if there was a window that didn't have a spider colony, he made sure it did. I thought it was a bit extreme but after seeing all of the mosquitoes & such in the webs, I learned to appreciate his efforts!

I used to be horrified of roaches, especially the BIG ones that can fly (what Southern genteel ladies refer to as palmetto bugs). I had to get over that after living in Mobile for several years because the roaches outnumber people at least 100 to one!

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Quote
The UnDoug

Quote
Stephanie
Killing something that you don't like even though it's completely harmless? WHY?

Guess you're a vegetarian, eh?

Nope, I'm not a vegetarian but there's a huge difference between killing a harmless insect, arachnid, animal, etc. simply because you don't LIKE it and killing an animal, insect, arachnid, etc. for food.

Quote
AllGold
Stephanie wasn't entirely accurate. Not only are they harmless to us, but they are benificial because they help to eliminate insects that are pests to us.

I pretty much hinted at that (the fact I love having them around because they kill other bugs that bug me.

As for killing something out of fear, or using the excuse of "I have kids around - I can't have that thing around here!"...I still ask WHY?

If you're so afraid of something that lives in your environment, do some research on it to learn more about it instead of killing it. Most of the time, the "threat" from "dangerous" aniamals is seriously overblown. In many cases, attempting to kill a threat can be worse than just letting it be.

If you have kids around and you KNOW there are "dangerous" things in their environment, educate them! And, it's just as easy to remove a small "threat" like a spider from one's property as it is to kill it. So why not let it live? Larger threats will often go away on their own or there are people you can call to remove them safely.

Just remember, you can kill this one thing which you fear but that doesn't eliminate a potential "threat." For every one you kill, there are probably 100 more, unseen, waiting to get you. And for that reason alone, education and prevention are much better philosophies to have - you would do much better at "protecting" your family by teaching them what things should be left alone, so that should they encounter one, they'll know how to act appropriately.

Spiders rock. I have two orb weavers who have set up shop on my back porch and who weave some pretty neat webs every night. Little Poochie and I like to check out their handiwork every morning.

Sure, they look scary, but my backyard is virtually unusable from late July through the first freeze due to the armies of mosquitoes that hang out there.

Anything that kills mosquitoes is welcome on my property. Stephanie, I've found some brown snakes and some garter snakes living in my pachysandras. Do they eat mosquitoes?

I saw one of those spiders at Chincoteague. I just didn't know I saw it till I downloaded the picture (WARNING ALPHADOG, ARACHNID CONTENT):

[gallery.me.com]

You can bet if I had seen that spider I would not have gotten so close, but I was so intent on getting close to the bird I didn't see the bug.

If you don't like spiders, then you really don't want to play with this:

[www.onemotion.com]


outcast