Spiders
Latin
Name: Class Arachnida
Appearance: Eight legs, no wings or antennae, eight eyes (rarely
six), and mouthparts have fangs.
Habitat: Hide
in dark areas. When found in human made structures, spiders that like
moisture are usually found in basements, crawl spaces and other damp
parts of buildings. The spiders that like dry environments can usually
be spotted near subfloor air vents, upper corners of rooms, hallways
and attics.
Spiders
can be divided into one of two groups depending on how they capture
their prey: hunting (aka: wandering) spiders; and web-building
spiders. All spiders produce silk, but hunting spiders do not
construct webs to capture food. Instead, they rely on their quickness
and relatively good eyesight to capture prey. Web-building spiders
construct webs in rather quiet, undisturbed places to capture their
food. They live in or near their web and wait for food to come to
them. They generally have poor eyesight and rely on sensing vibrations
in their web to detect prey.
Spiders
use silk to build webs and other types of snares, egg cases, draglines,
and refuges. Silk is also produced by spiderlings (young spiders)
during a process called ballooning in which the spiderlings
shoot silk into the air and are carried away by the wind.
All
spiders have venom and are therefore venomous. However, most spiders
are harmless to humans (only two species in the Midwest are
potentially harmful to humans - Brown
Recluse and the Northern Widow).
Spiders are very shy and usually remain hidden in undisturbed areas.
Many are active only at night. They are not aggressive and they will
try to escape when confronted. Few spiders bite, even when coaxed.
Fortunately, the bites of most spiders are less painful than an average
bee sting.
Diet:
Spiders are predators, feeding mainly on insects; and often considered
beneficial because of the large number of insects they prey on, including
a number of pest species.
Reproduction: Produce an egg sac.
Other: Sanitation is the best control measure. There are over
3,000 kinds of spiders reportedly within the U.S. (NOTE: Sizes given
under spider descriptions represent the length of the body not including
the legs).
Jumping Spider
Latin Name: Salticidae
Appearance: Jumping spiders are generally recognized by their
eye pattern. They typically have eight eyes arranged in two or three
rows. The front, and most distinctive row is enlarged and forward
facing to enable stereoscopic vision. The others are situated back
on the cephalothorax.
These
spiders move quickly in a jerky, irregular gait. They get their name
from their ability to leap on their prey, often jumping many times
their own body length. Jumping spiders have the best vision of spiders,
seeing objects up to 8 inches away.
Colours
and patterns vary widely. They are usually dark-colored with white
markings, although some can be brightly colored, including some with
iridescent mouthparts. Jumping spiders are generally small to medium-sized
(about 1/5 - 1/2 inch long) and compact-looking. (Several species
of jumping spiders appear to mimic ants, beetles, or pseudoscorpions.
Others may appear to be parts of grass stems, bumps on twigs, bark,
part of a rock or even part of a sand surface.)
They
are active during the day and are often found around windows, ceilings,
walls, and other areas exposed to sunlight.
Habitat:
A hunting spider; common to both indoors and outdoors.
Diet: They use their superior eyesight to distinguish and track
their intended meals, often from several inches. Then, they pounce,
giving the insect little to no time to react before succumbing to
the spider's venom. Because of their exceptional eyesight, jumping
spiders eat both live and dead insect prey, and can even recognize
insect eggs as food (unlike other spiders). Some jumping spiders include
nectar and pollen in their diet.
Reproduction: Jumping spiders use their vision in complex visual
courtship displays. Males are often quite different in appearance
than females and may have plumose hairs, colored or metallic hairs,
front leg fringes, structures on other legs and other, often bizarre,
modifications. These are used in visual courtship in which the colored
or metallic parts of the body are displayed and complex sideling,
vibrational or zigzag movements are performed in a courtship "dance."
Other: The jumping spider family (Salticidae) contains more
than 500 described genera and over 5,000 species, making it the largest
family of spiders. If approached by a human hand, instead of scuttling
away to safety as most spiders do, the jumping spider will usually
leap and turn to face the hand. Further approach may result in the
spider jumping backwards while still eyeing the hand. The tiny creature
will even raise its forelimbs and "hold its ground."
^Top
of Page^
Daddy-Longleg Spider
Latin Names: Spermophora
senoculata (short body)
Pholcus
phalangioides (long body)
Appearance (aka: cellar spiders): Have 8 extremely long
and skinny legs with small bodies (about 1/4" or less),
2 body parts, and fang-like mouthparts called chelicerae.
The web is usually very messy, similar to the web of a cobweb spider.
Habitat: Common in homes, but they typically stay in one place,
are slow moving, and don't bother people. Often make their stringy
webs indoors, preferring shady corners in basements, pantries, closets,
attics, barns, and sheds. When they are not living in buildings, they
are sometimes found in protected natural areas, including caves and
rock piles.
Diet: Feed on small moths, flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and other
creatures that are common indoors. When food is scarce, some abandon
their webs and find the webs of other spiders. They will then tap
on the web, mimicking a trapped insect. When the owner of the web
comes to catch its "prey," the cellar spider captures and
eats it.
Reproduction: Hatch from eggs and look like tiny adults. They
shed their skin as they grow. Females lay a few dozen eggs at a time
and wrap them in webbing for protection.
Other: They
are not known to bite.
^Top
of Page^
House
Spider
Latin Name: Parasteatoda
tepidariorum
Appearance:
Habitat:
Diet:
Reproduction:
Other: . [See below photos]
^Top
of Page^
Wolf Spider
Latin Name: Lycosids
Appearance: Wolf spiders are dark-colored, usually brownish
or grayish, with white markings. They are moderate to large-sized
spiders (1/4 - 3/4 inch long).
Habitat: A
hunting spider. Common spiders outdoors
and are occasionally seen indoors. Some
wolf spiders build small burrows and defend a territory, others are
free-roaming. They
live by the thousands in leaf litter and grassy areas; usually seen
on the ground or under stones in a wide
variety of habitats, such as forest floors, grassy meadows, swamps,
and bogs. Some even like to live underground.
Diet: Active hunters, instead
of catching prey in a web, wolf spiders stalk and chase their prey
like a wolf. Commonly hunt during the
day or at night when it is warm, patroling the ground for insects,
small spiders, and similar prey.
Reproduction: Simple metamorphosis: like all spiders, young
wolf spiders hatch from eggs and look like tiny adults when they are
born. A wolf spider sheds its skin several times as it grows to an
adult. Most wolf spiders live for several years. In many species,
female wolf spiders lay dozens of eggs at a time and wrap them in
a large ball of silk. The female will then carry the egg sac on her
abdomen until the spiderlings hatch. Upon hatching, the spiderlings
will live on the mother's back for a few weeks until they are large
enough to hunt on their own. [See below photo]
Other: They are often the same color as their background, so
they can be very hard to see. Wolf spiders are very fast, so you have
to be fast too if you want to catch one
^Top
of Page^
Brown
Recluse Spider
Latin Name: Loxosceles
reculsa
Appearance: The brown recluse spider is nicknamed the fiddleback
or violin spider because of the distinctive dark violin-shaped
marking on top of the front body section. The neck of the violin
points toward the rear. The brown recluse is unusual in having six
eyes instead of the usual eight. The spiders are tan to dark
brown and nearly ½ inch in body size.
Habitat: A hunting spider. Recluse spiders avoid areas where
there is human activity, and prefer closets, guest rooms, basements,
and attics. They frequently inhabit shoe boxes, clothing and furniture.
These spiders are most active at night.
Diet: Feed on silverfish, crickets, cochroaches and other insects.
Brown Recluse spiders feed on cockroaches and other insects. They
hunt for their prey or wait until an insect comes in close proximity
to them. (The same venom that acts to liquefy an insect's innards
for consumption also causes the "flesh rotting" appearances
to us humans.)
Brown
Recluse spiders are remarkably resilient and can survive 6 to 12 months
with no food or water.
Reproduction: About 40-50 eggs are contained within 1/3 inch
diameter off-white silken egg sacs. The females produce up to 5 egg
sacs in a lifetime. The tiny emerged spiders gradually increase in
size, molting five to eight times before becoming adults, maturing
in about a year and have an average lifespan of 2 to 4 years. Infestation
levels in homes vary greatly, ranging from one or a few spiders to
several hundred.
MEDICAL ALERT: The bite of the brown recluse spider is usually
painless. However, localized burning sensation, then intense pain,
often develops within the first hour and during the next 6-12 hours,
a small pimple or white blister forms. The surrounding tissue begins
to darken and take a raised appearance.
The venom
of this spider can cause extensive tissue damage
(necrotic reaction) and over the next 10-14 days, a sunken, open,
ulcerated sore up to several centimeters in diameter. It normally
takes 6-8 weeks for a brown recluse spider bite to heal. A large sunken
scar may persist that requires surgery to repair. Not every brown
recluse bite results in ulcer formation. In rare cases systemic complications
such as liver or kidney damage result.
See
your physician or emergency room as soon as you suspect a brown recluse
spider bite. Capture the spider for later identification
(crush the specimen, if necessary, but do so as gently as possible).
Other:
Cannot bite through clothing because of its small fangs. Most people
are bitten on the hands or feet when handling infested items. [See
below photos]
In
homes, webs are often produced by harmless cobweb or cellar
spiders. While sometimes considered a nuisance, these spiders
actually prey upon brown recluses, and in this sense could be considered
beneficial.
^Top
of Page^
Sac Spider
Latin Name: Chiracanthium
Appearance: (aka: two-clawed hunting spiders). They are small
to medium-sized spiders (1/5 - 2/5 inch long) and are usually yellowish
or light-colored.
Can
be identified by their “sacs” – tubular webs about
1-inch long, typically positioned between angled surfaces. The sacs
are used as “retreats,” that is, the spiders rest in them
by day and emerge at night to wander in search of prey. The retreats
may be abandoned after only one day’s use, so household infestations
of sac spiders are often easily identified, even without seeing the
spiders, due to the prevalence of sacs around door and window frames,
in corners, and where walls and ceilings meet.
Habitat: A
hunting spider. Fast-running, nocturnal hunters that can be found
from floor to ceiling in structures and will drop on a line of silk
when disturbed. They also are common outdoors where they live in vegetation
and often enter homes as temperatures drop in fall.
Although
sac spiders do not construct webs, they do build retreats from silk.
Inside buildings, sac spiders are found in retreats in a variety of
places, including high up on walls near ceilings.
Outdoors, they usually roll up leaves into a tube, or may construct
a retreat under stones.
Diet:
Reproduction:
MEDICAL ALERT: The bite of a common sac spider can be misdiagnosed
as a brown recluse spider bite. Bite injuries develop in a similar
manner to that of a brown recluse spider, but
are much less severe, and can vary with various sac spider types.
Reactions, such as sharp pain felt upon the initial bite, swelling,
slow healing, and ulcerated sores around the bite site, are similar
enough to be confusing. Most bites will start to improve in a few
hours to 2-3 days.
^Top
of Page^
Nursery-web & Fishing Spiders
Latin Name: Pisaurids
Appearance: (aka: dock spiders). Th largest spiders in the
Upper Midwest (1 inch long). With legs spread out, some fishing spiders
cover as much as 4 inches. They are generally dark-colored, usually
brownish or grayish, with white markings.
Habitat: A
hunting spider. typically seen around
ponds, swamps, slow-moving streams, and nearby vegetation. They may
occasionally be found indoors.
Diet: Fishing spiders can "skate" across water and
can dive underneath to capture prey. In addition to insects, fishing
spiders can also catch tadpoles, small fish, and other small vertebrate
animals.
Reproduction: Young fishing spiders hatch from eggs and look
like tiny adults when they are born. They shed their skin as they
grow. After laying her eggs, a female nursery-web or fishing spider
will wrap them into a silk eggsac. She will then carry the eggsac
in her chelicerae until the eggs hatch. When hatching time arrives,
the female will build a "nursery" in which the eggs can
hatch. The nursery consists of a few leaves woven together with silk.
This forms a protective pocket into which the eggsac is placed.
Other:
^Top
of Page^
Northern Widow Spider
Latin Name: Latrodectus
variolus
Appearance: Very close relative of the Black Widow spider.
Females have round, shiny black abdomens, with two slightly apart
red triangles (the hour-glass marking) on the underside of the
belly. They are up to ½ inch long. Adult males and immatures
have four diagonal whitish bands on each side of the abdomen; is approximately
half the size of the female; and around 1/4 inch in body length.
Habitat:
Shy and prefer secluded locations such as crawl spaces, attics, garages,
and sheds where they construct a tangled, crisscross web. Common web
locations are in undisturbed stacked boards, tree stumps, firewood
piles, in rubble, around water meters, under stones or other protected
sites.
The
female spends most of the daylight hours in a silken tunnel retreat
and is helpless away from her web. The web is typically a 3-dimensional,
unorganized mass of silk spun in a dark crevice or corner. The web
is sticky, and very strong. If the web is active (in use), the female
will be in or very near the web. At night, the female hangs belly
upward in the center of the web. Webs often are one foot in diameter.
Diet: The web serves to trap the spider's food, which includes
a variety of insects (cockroaches and beetles) and other arthropods.
Reproduction: Mating takes place in spring or summer. A common
misconception is that the female usually consumes the male after mating.
Such behavior rarely occurs. The female lays eggs in a silken sac
that is globular shaped and about 1/3 to 1/2-inch diameter. Sacs are
white at first, later turning tan or gray. Each sac contains 25 to
250 eggs, and several egg sacs may be produced over the course of
a summer. The egg sacs are suspended in the web and guarded by the
female. The egg incubation period usually lasts about 4 weeks. The
spiderlings hatch and molt (shed their skin) one time while inside
the egg sac. They then disperse by ballooning?extruding silk threads
and being transported by air currents. Their growth to maturity requires
2 to 4 months depending on the availability of prey. Spiderlings molt
several times before reaching maturity.
MEDICAL ALERT: This
spider bite is immediately painful. The most reliable evidence
of a bite is two tiny red puncture marks, around which the pain intensifies
during the first three hours. The pain continues for 12-48 hours and
then gradually subsides.
Venom
contains a neurotoxin that can cause headache, dizziness, shortness
of breath, and often painful abdominal spasms and back pain. Rigidity
of limbs, increased blood pressure, and profuse sweating are other
symptoms. Death seldom occurs in healthy adults though children and
adults in poor health may die within 12-32 hours from asphyxia.
Anyone
suspecting a spider bite should receive medical attention as soon
as possible. A commercial antidote is available for black widow
spider bites.
Other:
. [See below photos]
^Top
of Page^
Crab Spider
Latin Name:
Appearance: Common outdoor spider, but are not usually seen
indoors. They are small to medium-sized spiders (1/10 - 2/5 inch long)
ranging in color from yellow or red to brown or gray. The first four
legs of crab spiders are crab-like, being held out to the sides. They
are also usually longer than the back four. Crab spiders can walk
forwards, sideways, or backwards.
Habitat: A
hunting spider. Outdoors,
crab spiders are often found on flowers but are also seen on stems
or leaves.
Diet: Wait motionless and ambush insects that pass closely
by.
Reproduction:
Other:
^Top
of Page^
Tarantula Spider
Latin Name:
Appearance:
Habitat:
Diet:
Reproduction:
Other: . [See below photos]
^Top
of Page^
Home
| Pest Control | Ants
| Bees | Flies
| Roaches
Rodents
| Spiders | Termites | Other
Pests
Contact
Us | Links
