Help identify this spider.

fishgutzy

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It scared the crap out if my wife when she was picking the peppers.
At least she got a big pile picked.
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One of the orb weavers. We used to call them "Writing spiders". Cool critters and he does the best he can to guard your garden from vegetable (like peppers) eating eight-legged varmints.
 
I hate spiders 99% of the time ... but I love a good Writer. They are artists and I leave them be. The only thing I might do is knock down a web that is in a path but I don’t mess with the spider itself.
 
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Yeah just an orb spider.

Let me tell you, they glow in the dark when your headlamp hits them just before your face hits the web when you’re walking to your deer stand in the dark.
 
Nothing like walking into a web in the dark and having one of those big weavers hit you in the face while your whole head gets wrapped in silk. Even though they are harmless when you have one as big as your knuckle crawling down your neck in the dark you simply know that you are gonna die! :eek::D
 
They’re harmless til they bite your ass. Feels like someone stuck a cigarette to your skin
 
They are big spiders with big webs but I always leave them alone. Very cool as long as you don’t walk in to a web in the dark.
 
Our porch light attracts moths & bugs that then attract: Larinioides cornutus, the furrow spider that more or less surround the door way. I don't begrudge them their earning a crust, but having several of them lurking about one's shoulders and head when fumbling for the keys (at night) is disconcerting.

Also saw a 3-1/2" mantis on the door the other night: got a picture of her, but I'm pretty clueless about the whole picture/dropbox thing.
 
Orb Weavers come in a wide variety of sizes and colors. I never had one bite me though, and I have given many of them a free ride as I ran screeching through the woods in the dark. For a spider I guess that's about all of the entertainment and joy they get in their simple little lives.
 
Orb Weavers come in a wide variety of sizes and colors. I never had one bite me though, and I have given many of them a free ride as I ran screeching through the woods in the dark. For a spider I guess that's about all of the entertainment and joy they get in their simple little lives.
There you go making me laugh this morning :D
There's a technical term for that--> aracni-maniac
 
When I was a kid I'd shoot them with a BB gun. I haven't seen one in my garden in years. I guess they heard about me?
 
I had an orb weaver build a web across my front porch one year. The web was bigger than the front door and blocked access to the porch. I left it up for several days just because of the sheer size of it, but finally had to knock it down. The spider moved over a few feet and built a smaller web, which I left alone. I don't mind most spiders as long as they are outside of the house and I see them before I walk into the web, so garden spiders are generally welcome.
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They're everywhere in eastern NC. Most I've ever seen in one place was in Holly Shelter. Used to have a ground water monitoring station I had to check weekly out there, and I'd run into dozens of them every time I hiked in.

As a teen, I was riding an ATV into my deer stand about 4:30 am one morning, and caught one right across my face. Its probably the most freaked out I've ever been in my life.

I respect what they do, but I sure don't like 'em.
 
Beautiful orb Weaver. Had one hitch a ride on a trash can once, that I had rolled out to the street one night. By the next morning, he had gone back to his web, where the cans normally sit, over 60ft. away. I was a little surprised. He never ran from me and I never bothered him.
 
no clue what you did to make one bite you. I have handled hundreds of them (I was blessed with a complete lack of fear for snakes and spiders) and I've always found them to be pretty docile. We used to tell city kids that if the spider wrote your name in the web, you'd seen your last birthday.
 
The yellow and black ones are very common here in Upstate SC. What the old folks used to call a "Writing Spider". I heard the tale about having your name written in the web but unless your name is ZZZZZZZZ I don't think you have much to worry about.

I saw my first orange round Orb Weaver just this year.
 
It scared the crap out if my wife when she was picking the peppers.
At least she got a big pile picked.
1f4f102ebdd5b8d130432430b1bc28bf.jpg
dd957ef3c302cace7a94bd716ee721d2.jpg


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That good sir is what I always called and known as a garden spider.

Biggest one to date I have personally seen looked to be 7-8” at its widest point. I leave them alone and they are good to have around
 
I bet I've walked through a 100 arrow head spider webs this week between trout fishing and doing some work where I hunt today. It's a banner year for them apparently.
 
It's that time of year for the Orb's to be spinning. I saw the UPS guy do a jig as he walked up on the porch yesterday, and I say .. yeah, got to watch those. I don't spray em, I like to watch them in the morning and evening building their web.

Never been bit.. but I have danced a jig.
 
I need to take a flashlight when walking the dog at night. Not for the walkways but to reflect off the webs that are between the trees. Those threads are tough!

They're right at head level too. :eek:
 
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