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Thursday, June 19, 2008

«Spiders»

I keep seeing these spiders at my mom's place, and I finally decided to look into what they are, and if I should be worried. I sent an email off to Spider Identification.org, so I'll see what they have to say.

Mysterious spider on June 17, 2008.

Click image to view full

I sent in the full-sized version of this image along with this email:

Subject: Please ID this spider

Name: Cody Durkin
Location: Ketchikan, Alaska, United States
Website/Blog: http://mastermarf.blogspot.com/
Email: To stop spambots, you must have javascript enabled to view the email address.
Picture: Attached as spider.jpg

I have seen quite a few of these at my mom's place, but no-where else in town that I can remember. It's a rather old apartment building. With the legs spread out, their leg-span is about the size of a silver dollar. Although as you can see in the picture, their bodies are quite small. The only poisonous spider we're suppose to have here is the brown recluse. This spider does not have the violin shape marking, so it's not one of those.

With nearly a million people passing through this town each year through our tourism industry, any spider could find its way here. We have cruise ships in town during the summer every day, sometimes 5 or 6 at a time. The ships are in Mexico or Australia / New Zealand in the winter. Most of the ships were constructed in Europe, and registered in Bermuda or the Bahamas. So these spiders could have hitched a ride from about anywhere. Because they are in the house, they could easily survive the winters.

They make irregular shaped webs, usually in corners. The webs are not very dense; there are not many strands of silk in the webs.

The picture was taken at about 1:00 AM in the bathroom on June 17, 2008. I kill them with a folded tissue paper every time I see them. I've seen these here ever since my mom moved in the building 3 years ago. Anyway, I'd like to know what type of spider this is, and if it's dangerous. Thanks.

So we'll see if I get a reply.

EDIT: The spider has been identified.

11 comments:

  1. Look like it needs a caption, such as -

    Office Politics

    No need to get worked up. Just spin your web and be patient.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Uh oh Marf, look what you've done. Now you have Looney planning out Motivators.

    We have a very odd cricket thing here. It looks similar to the brown recluse, but it jumps - like I mean, JUMPS.

    I have them in the garage during the Summer and Fall months. Since my washer/dryer are in the garage, I can be out there at all times ((they only show themselves at night)) and it is not fun to be barefoot standing at the dryer when I remember these li'l pests.

    Instant panic attack. Creepy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heh Heh. I made my first motivational poster from this picture.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah, I went and took a look at it. I like it, and I think I'll put it up here this Monday...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Let us know if you hear anything... curious now... I usually just scoop up any spiders that find their way indoors and put them outside. Maybe I should be more careful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I do the same, Barbara, but I don't touch 'em with my hands--THEY MIGHT EAT ME!!!

    Omg, look what you've done, Marf!!! I've got the creepy crawly feelin' that somethin's on me! Aaaah, spiders. [T.T]

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Barbara: I don't bother letting them live when I find them. There's enough spiders out there...

    @ |bernadette|: lol, I know that feeling.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ive recently moved into a new house and ive come across these spiders..any info would be greatly appreciated...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has been identified, see the EDIT I made at the bottom of the post. It is a Pholcus phalangioides (daddy longlegs) and is harmless to humans.

      Delete
    2. so NOT a daddy longlegs... those are very common where I am and don't look anything like this spider...

      Delete
  9. They are called a Cellar Spider and some people refer to them as 'daddy long legs' but that's not the case. The cellar spider has that long thin body (and obviously long legs) and the daddy long legs has an egg shaped much larger body and doesn't spin webs or silk at all. If you google 'daddy long legs' you will see many pictures and only a few which are accurately pictures of a daddy long legs (which are not even actual spiders). If you google cellar spider - you will find you have your match :) Hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete

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