Quote:
Originally Posted by juri
Anyone know what spider is 8 legged, black and bright yellow? One is hanging in my veggie garden and is fierce looking and makes a very thick web...Know if it is poisonous?
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There are different names for it, but the common street name is "writing spider" because they create designs in their web that old timers used to say looked like they were trying to write words. The popular children's story "Charlotte's Web" features a writing spider as the character.
Here are some pics of it:
writing spider - Google Image Search
They're not poisonous per se, unless you have an odd allergic reaction to the venom. They'll sit in their web and let people get extremely close without moving a hair, but if you bother them or the web directly, yes, they can and have been known to bite. Kids will blow on them for fun (as it causes them to "bounce" up and down on their web like a trampoline).
They're beneficial in that they eat lots of bugs and even other spiders that might be more dangerous to you, so unless he/she is in a spot where someone stands a good chance of walking right into the center of the web, I'd leave it alone. They never wonder into homes or anything - they stay outdoors - so no worry about that.
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Spiders, spiders EVERYWHERE
).............YG
