Spider ID?

[telophase]

Any passing entomologists want to ID this spider for me? And NO it's not a black widow. :) It (and several of its sisters/children/cousins) are hanging out in my garage, and as the light isn't very good in there I couldn't tell if it had the hourglass on the abdomen (I'm kind of vague on the general silhouette of the black widow other than the bulbous abdomenXD), so I took this photo hoping that the macro setting would focus well enough in low light for me to tell. It worked enough for me to figure out it's not a black widow, which is the difference between going down there NOW with spider extermination in mind, or getting rid of the majority of them in my own time.

(Anyone who tells me that spiders are GOOD and kill other bugs is cordially invited to bite it. When the garage door electric eye sensor that keeps the door from shutting if there's something in the way has seven egg cases on it that is officially Too Damn Many Spiders. I don't mind them in small doses.)





ETA: There's also this spider:

Comments

[harukami]

I can't help you, but I found this site -- it looks like he IDs spiders pretty easily and he answers very fast (see 'Susan's post, and his reply to it) if you want to leave him a comment.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. There's a professional entomologist on my f-list, but if she doesn't wander by or declines to comment, I'll try that. :D

[harukami]

Excellent!

(is the second spider smaller than the first? It has the same sort of shape so my first thought was "maybe it's an immature version of the same species"...)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

(Yeah, it is. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's an immature version, going by the sheer number of egg cases I can find. XD)

[harukami]

(YEAH I IMAGINE. S-sob. XD)

[ninja-tech.livejournal.com]

Well, this webpage may help. Looks like there is more than one species of Black Widow in Texas.

http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/l-1787.html

Hope it's not the dangerous sort. Otherwise, I can't look too closely, as spiders give me the heeby jeebies!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hm, interesting! I think it's still probably not a black widow, going by the egg cases, which aren't the shape described, but you never know! :)

[ninja-tech.livejournal.com]

Ah. Didn't read that far into the page. Saw that there was a number of colors and patterns and went "eek! I'll let telophase look." XD

[telophase.livejournal.com]

No prob! :D They don't really give me the heebie-jeebies, but after reading through the page, every time something brushes my skin, I jump a bit. XD

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but you could try What's That Bug? (http://whatsthatbug.com/)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. :D

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

lol unlike the people that say spiders are good, my thoughts would be I don't care what kind of spider it is but if there are that many of them I would be sending someone else to the garage with the raid.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm just a bit leery of Raid because I don't want my cat to accidentally walk in it. XD A good whack with a shoe usually takes care of 'em. I dispatched a cockroach on Sunday that way. :D

[seawolf10.livejournal.com]

I've heard cedar oil works well as pest control, actually. Might be worth a shot.

[wolflantern.livejournal.com]

There is also a spider in the same family called a brown widow. They can be found in the Southeastern US. Here is a page with some pictures:

http://www.insectimages.org/browse/subthumb.cfm?sub=7325&Start=1&display=60&sort=2

Here is some more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrodectus_geometricus

I live in Alabama - both of these spiders are really common here.

[tokyoghoststory.livejournal.com]

good luck on IDing it! random spider aside, there's this spider that likes to hang out on the lampost by my building's staircase every night. damn thing has landed on me twice already, just reeling down to peep whats up when i pass through. now i have to manuever like a ninja so it doesn't get near me. (i have had some pretty lame spiderbites, all i need to do is accidently force this one into nibbling my arm off)

[assume-a-virtue.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhh. I just got bit by a spider yesterday and now my whole ankle is swollen. D: oh god, forget what they are, just kill 'em! >.< I've heard that windex works on them pretty well, too.

(I wouldn't know. I have cats to eat them.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

My cat won't kill them! Or any type of bug! She'll watch them scurry around and will follow them, but won't touch them! *I* had to kill the roach this weekend!

I keep telling her that her job is to kill the bugs and that's why I pay her the big bucks, but she just ignores me. This will certainly be reflected on her next performance review!

[assume-a-virtue.livejournal.com]

XD I have one for spiders and crickets, and one for bees and flies.

[redsnowpenguin.livejournal.com]

ohhh ohhh, they're kind of cuute :O

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

There's nothign in the top picture for scale - how big was it? And could you describe the web, if any?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'd say the whole spider from tip of leg to tip of leg is less than an inch (ETA: Possibly closer to half an inch? I can check when I get home). The web is a sort of three-dimensional jobbie in a corner of the garage - not a traditional spoke-and-wheel pattern. I saw no evidence of a tunnel anywhere.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

My best guess is that they are both members of the genus Steatoda in the family Theridiidae, the cobweb spiders. This is the same family as the black widow, but Steatoda is significantly less venomous to humans. If I had them in my garage I'd probably take a broom to them if they were blocking the garage door sensor, but I wouldn't wage all out genocide.

Wiki's article on Steatoda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steatoda)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks. (Actually, would the venom be more of a problem to something the size of a cat?)