Should we be concerned?
This little beast parked itself tightly into our daughter’s playscape. We don’t usually get a lot of large spiders up here in northeast CT, so we figured we would ask some experts if this thing is dangerous. We need to know soon as about a thousand of its infant minion have just burst forth from the joint where she’s nested!
Thanks!
Dave

Hi Dave,
Sorry for the long delay in answering. No, you should not be concerned. You have a wandering spider known as Pisaurina mira. These spiders do not build webs, but stalk their prey. They only build webs to care for their young. Though many spiders will bite when provoked, they are not aggressive. Comstock writes:
“This is an extremely variable species in colour and in size. Full-grown specimens measure about one half (ed. note excluding legs) inch in length. In the more common type the body is light brownish yellow, with a wide darker and browner band on the middle of both cephalothorax and abdomen; on the cephalothorax the edges of the band are nearly straight, but on the abdomen they are undulating. The band is bordered on each side by a white line. This is a common species throughout the eastern part of the United States, and one that frequently attracts attention on account of its beauty.” I hope your spider hasn’t met with an untimely end because of our tardiness.

yellow spider
I found this spider (unfortunately dead) floating in my pool. I live in Pennsylvania. Can you identify it? It is a very bright yellow-about the size of a dime or slightly smaller.
Wendy

Hi Wendy,
Your drowned Crab Spider is also called a Flower Spider.

Greetings,
Yesterday as I was walking my dog I came across this spider just closing its ‘door’ and it really gave me the chills. I haven’t seen anything like it around here before, or anywhere on the east coast for that matter. Now I haven’t really got a good look at its whole body because it seems pretty comfortable in it’s little hole. The burrow is approximatly 1 inch around and about 2-3 inches deep. I did some searching on trapdoor spiders and mouse spiders, but I haven’t found whether or not these are native to North Carolina. I’d also like to know if the spider is a threat to me or my dog. It’s fangs seem fairly big, and very strong considering it’s size. I left it alone after snapping the few pictures I did manage to get. Sorry if the pictures can’t help with an ID, but I was not about to stick my fingers in there and take it out Thanks for any advice you can give.

Hi Dave,
Your photos are great. Your Trapdoor spider is a female, recognizeable by her shorter legs. According to Comstock, Trapdoor Spiders belong to the family Ctenizidae. Pachylomerides audouini is found in the warmer parts of the Atlantic seaboard, including, obviously, North Carolina.

July in Alabama
Can you tell me what type of spider this beauty is? The web was so interesting. The spider is about an inch or a little less in size. It’s web was close to the gound in some ivy.
Thanks,
Anne

Hi Anne,
You have sent in a photo of Miranda aurantia, the Yellow Garden Spider. The web is unique. They are orb web builders who place a stabilimentum in the center. It is believed to act as a camoflague for the spider. Your spider has made the lace-like stabilimentum. The spider is widely distributed in the United States and other parts of the world.

Hello!
I have been looking through the spiders on your site, and believe my house is being overtaken by the jewelled araneus? I am sending pictures along, and the only reason I am not sure, is by your description of the web and breeding times. These spiders love the windows on our house, (eating moths, like you mentioned) but the webs are fairly small and quite messy. Not very "orb" like. They have stretched over large areas in some areas, like in my husband’s garage, from an engine stand to the bench. It ends up being almost hammock-like. Also, right now, almost everyone I have seen has about 3 egg sacks, some of which are "hatching" already. This doesn’t seem to match up with your description of them doing so in fall.
We’re not very worried about them, as they are adept bug killers. We live in Charles County, MD and we’re kind of out in the woods. We see plenty of different spiders! I have enclosed a picture of an adult female with egg sack, and the second is a younger one. I would appreciate your input, and would also like to know if having as many as we do is a problem. (they’re everywhere!!) Thanks for you time! (they also don’t seem to mind being in close proximity of each other)
Sincerely,
Debra

Hi Debra,
You have a Domestic Spider, Theridion tepidariorum. Comstock writes: “Of all the spiders that inhabit our dwellings, this is the most familiar, and consequently best merits the title of the Domestic Spider. Its tangle of threads can be found in almost any neglected room, throughout the length and breadth of our country; and the species is not limited to our country for it is almost a cosmopolite. This is an exceedingly variable species in colour and markings. … The egg-sacs are brownish and pear-shaped with a dense outer coat. They are suspended in the web, and several of them are made by one spider.”

Wolf or other?
I found this spider one morning moving though the grass. It’s overall size is about as big as a Gatoraid top and it seems to be highly aggressive. Most of the wolf spider I have seen only want to make a quick getaway but this one lifts it’s front four lets in an almost vertical stance, very similar to that of the funnel web spider in Austraila The longest of it’s two legs in the front, upon close examination, has small hooks almost identical to the stingers found on scorpions (have not seen that before in a wolf spider here in Virginia, most of them are of a brown color variation and have no "claws" that are visible. Here is one of the clearer images I shot.
Any help on this one is greatly appreciated….
Joe

Hi Joe,
Your photo looks like a Trapdoor Spider to me. Definitely not a Wolf Spider. I believe Trapdoor Spiders are related to Funnel Web Spiders. Both build a silk line burrow and wait for prey. Your specimen looks like a male who is probably searching for a mate. We recently got a letter from Florida from a reader who has found two dead in his pool.