My friend is worried bushes having an "outbreak" of these (which prob means she's seen like3 or 4 around her house lol ). Any idea the species? And whether or not they pose any kind of threat to human kind...
That is one of the False Widows in the genus Steatoda - possibly Steatoda grossa or a close relative. They are not considered medically significant to people, though a bite could be a little unpleasant. I have both these and the closely-related Steatoda triangulosa living in my home and have never had any problem with them. (I have a bunch of them in my bug/spider room - they clean up any escaped feeder crickets or fruit flies.)
I agree it looks like a Steatoda to me too. They are neat little spiders. If you intend on keeping any of them, they do well as mentioned just in a corner of the room to clean up escapees. Kept like widows they are voracious feeders and apparently have no clue how big or small they are. You should catch and relocate them for your friend. They are always welcome at my house. Of course so are anything Latrodectus or Loxosceles so take that for what it's worth
I have a Steatoda triangulosa female that I collected from my basement, and when it started reproducing I let the slings disperse naturally and I haven't seen a mosquito inside all summer.
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