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Wed 19 Oct, 2005 08:46 am
This morning there was a huge spider in my garage and it was spinning the weirdest web I've ever seen - it was not typical spider web construction.
It would release web while bungee jumping from the light fixture, crawl back up the web gathering it in floaty loops, spin the loops into a ball and then attach the ball randomly over a very basic net type things.
I watched the spider for about 15 minutes, then Mo and I watched the spider for another 15 minutes then Mr. B got out of the shower and we all watched the spider for a long time. Then I made Mr. B catch in in a jar and "take it to work with him".
I'm a bit concerned that this might have been a hobo spider because of it's atypical web construction but it was too early in the process to get an idea of the final design.
Also, the spider was kind of striped - light brown and dark brown and that would seem to be something other than a hobo spider.
If I've got hobo spiders, I've got a problem.
Is anyone here familiar with the type of spider or web construction that I mentioned?
Do you know a site that offers information on identifing spiders by web construction in its early phases?
I don't have the spider here to look at anymore so I can't offer a better description.
Any help appreciated!
OH!
A couple of other things that might aid in identification:
Mr. B, who has great eyesight, said something about the spiders big pincher-fangy-things. I've since learned that hobo spider's genitalia are often mistaken for fangy things.
Its web wasn't sticky. While I was watching a moth landed on it and flew away without much struggle.
Sounds like a brown recluse. They make wonderful house pets.
Better not let it bite you....
(that's an actual photo from a brown recluse bite. Some of the photos are much more graphic but I thought Mo might be looking over your shoulder)
gustavratzenhofer wrote:Sounds like a brown recluse. They make wonderful house pets.
my grandma got bit by one of them and almost died
Brown recluse spiders are not common here. Hobo spider bites have a very similar effect and brown recluse spiders are often blamed for hobo bites.
I'll go look up some info on brown recluse spiders though. That is most certainly another kind of spider I don't want to have in my house!
One more thing I thought of---
I have found little spider nest type things under the rocks making up a retaining wall in my yard. I've never really worried about them because as long as a spider stays outside it is an okay spider with me. I'm a little worried now though.
I have 2 spiders lodging at home, maybe we could get them together, have a party, talk about the troubls of being a spider in this day and age....
material girl, you are welcome to visit anytime but please leave your lodgers at home!
I've been trying to further inspect the web design but unfortunately much of it was destroyed in capturing the spider.
I can't find anything about spiders that wad their silk up into balls to randomly decorate their web.
Perhaps my spider was an interior designer.
My spider was certainly as purposeful as Charlotte.
It was amazing to watch him drop, loop, roll and place his little decorations.
One of the strangest things I've ever seen.
Does this look like your spider, boomer?
Yikes!
I don't think my spider was that hairy but I wasn't looking through magnification.
I think it was a little more striped.
Now I wish I'd looked at it a little bit closer.
Does that spider make weird webs?
tried to copy the web, boomer, but the hobo wouldn't allow it. <smile>
AHHH!
Thanks Letty....I needed new underwear anyway.....
Boomer, what makes you think Letty's spider has been magnified?
<shudder>
Spiders give me the creeps but only when they're indoors.
I've been poking around and there are a few things that make me think this wasn't a hobo spider --
It was on the ceiling and apparently hobos build their webs low
It had stripes -- very contrasty stripes.
I know it wasn't one of the common spiders we see around here this time of year. They are striped too but a kind of reddish brown and tan. Plus, they build orb-webs.
This spiders behavior was so odd. It would spend some time crossing back and fourth on the light fixture building a hammocky kind of thing then it would do the dangle and decorate thing.
Weird.
See if this is Wilma's Webb, boomer
I imagine that the web would have resembled that if we had allowed its completion. The web's connection points were really haphazard like that. It looks like that one has some little decortive touches too.
Mr. B was wondering if the little balls were some kind of "bait". The fact that things were not sticking to the web make me think it was more of an attack spider than a passive hunter.
That looks a lot like the webs I find between the rocks in my retaining wall.
What kind of spider is that?
Stumble It!
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