CLOSED: Do you know what kind of Spider this is?

Me, too, wicker. I HATE spiders... but these intrigue me... they are garden helpers, and I really enjoy watching them. I guess once I get past the creepy crawly legs, and a couple shivers up my back... they're kinda cool!

Yes, they are cool. I've seen a few before and I've done some reasearch on them. If you ever see one, just let it be. As poppysue said, The yellow garden spider is a gardeners friend. Bites result in mild itching and swelling for a couple days, though it is believed their bites could inject a small amount of neurotoxin as well, but they will eat any grasshopers that kill your plants.

LOL, "friend". They make great photo subjects. I have yet to see a male in the garden.

I had one last year that spun a web from my appletree branch (about 6ft high) down to my daffodils! My boyfriend saw it and kept me from walking right through it....chills up my spine. Being bigger than I, left it alone. Excellent predator.

i have a spider in my back yard that looks like the yellow one except it is grey...it has yellow and black legs and a grey back with a white stripe....on the belly it is black and has 4 white dots...i havent killed it yet cuz its keeping the insects down...but i have a major fear of spiders and this one is BIG...i cant find one like it on the internet anywhere so i'm not sure what it is....can anyone help me identify it? please

In Texas this is commonly called a Cotton spider because of the cottony zig zag patches incorporated into the web. My kiddos used to call it the Zig Zag spider. They are very smart....we had one years ago when my kids were little, that built a web from the roof edge to the ground items just off the front porch. (after we discouraged her from building ON the porch) When the kids got bored one day that summer, they started tossing grasshoppers and any other bug they could find into her web. She would race over and wrap it up as soon as it hit. The kids were amused by this and for a few days they would go out several times a day to "feed the spider". They lost interest, school started... and I noticed any time I walked close to the web she would get very agitated. When I didn't "feed" her she started bouncing the web like a kid on a trampoline! I tested it several days and she did it every time I came close without her "dinner" It was so funny! So I began feeding our spider every day until she spun her egg sack and later died.

Cool story, Glidergal.

these garden spiders..i have never seen any in my area...then of course i live in upstate NY. do they only live in warmer climate?

This spider has an extremely wide distribution in the Americas from southern Canada south through the lower 48 United States, Mexico, and Central America as far south as Costa Rica; it was common in North Dakota where I grew up.

We have these beautiful spiders around here, which we affectionately call "Charlottes," but we do not seem to have as many as we have had in past years. Perhaps that is because we have so many mud daubers. One day I broke open a mud dauber's nest and found dozens of young garden spiders in a paralyzed state waiting to be dinner for the mud dauber's hatchlings.
Jane

This message was edited Jul 19, 2010 6:49 AM

This is Charlotte. She lived in our black-eyed peas and would accept grasshoppers right from our fingers. She just died, leaving five egg cases behind, of which we were able to save four. The other was lost to fire ants. We will miss her.

We would like to keep her egg cases safe until next spring and then put them back out in the garden and hope for the best. Any tips?

In Pa. where I used to live we had Agriopes too, we called them bananna spiders. Now I live in Tx. and I see them all the time in my garden. They are always welcome..but they need to leave my butterflies alone.

This spider was seen at my friends house. And she would like to know what it is ...so would I ..It is in north Carolina...can u help..Identify this one

Don't feel bad for killing it, all spiders are scary in my book, and if they are in my path they are as good as dead, harmless or not, it's a freaking spider!! no offense to yo spider lovers, but all spiders are creepy and scary to me!!

@lonlyguy - It is a southern house spider -
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/spiders/southern_house_spider.htm

Nice photos in this thread. I just had to post and say how jealous I am that you have seen one of these! :) I don't know if we even have those where I live. I've never gotten to see one. I hope to one day.