ohio widows

[catfishrod69]

ok i found 5 of these spiders in my moms storage room, and they have the exact same body structure of a widow, they have like a redish brown diamond pattern, with some tannish parts with spots on that part, but i think they might be Achaearanea tepidariorum house spiders...any answers?

 

[loxoscelesfear]

I think it is the Genus Steatoda. a house spider. harmless. same family as widows though.

 

[davisfam]

Not exactly sure but we're def. leaning towards the genus Steatoda as loxoscelesfear mentioned.. from the photo; S. triangulosa might be an option.

Photos: http://bugguide.net/node/view/6927/bgimage

Info: http://bugguide.net/node/view/6927

 

[TomM]

S. triangulosa

+1....That's what it is.

 

[catfishrod69]

s. triangulosa, for sure, go to the photos link, then 4 over, identical......im gonna turn em back loose...really pretty and i love the widow structure, but they are too small...if they got as big as my widow then yeah id keep one....

 

[davisfam]

s. triangulosa, for sure, go to the photos link, then 4 over, identical......im gonna turn em back loose...really pretty and i love the widow structure, but they are too small...if they got as big as my widow then yeah id keep one....

After we found this species, we def. took a good look at all the photos on BugGuide because we agree, these spidiies patterns as well as colors are beautiful and very unique much like the MANY beautiful species of Orb Weavers but we're the same way when it comes to size; we just LOVE our big Wolfiies! LOL!

 

[The Spider Faery]

I have a lovely female S. triangulosa who just laid 4 sacs. One sac is hatched...It's amazing how quickly they cannibalize, because there are only about 6 babies left from a sac of about 20, hatched a few weeks ago...So if anyone has an interest in keeping a few babies, I wouldn't worry too much about their size and them escaping, since there's not many to a sac and they die off quickly if kept together. Now I'm waiting on the other three sacs to hatch. If the weather wasn't so bad (major snowstorm dumpings), then I'd set them free, but for now it's been sweet to watch nature take its place.

I wish I had a good camera because I'd love to share pictures of this beauty!

 

[catfishrod69]

yeah they are beautiful...yeah i like orb weavers too...might end up keeping some of those next year...my big wolfie is still good, except out of like 200 babies there is for sure 1 left...he seems to be doing good though...need to rehouse him though....

After we found this species, we def. took a good look at all the photos on BugGuide because we agree, these spidiies patterns as well as colors are beautiful and very unique much like the MANY beautiful species of Orb Weavers but we're the same way when it comes to size; we just LOVE our big Wolfiies! LOL!

---------- Post added at 01:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 PM ----------

yeah cannibalizing seems to be really common among the true spiders ive seen....im not really worried about the size or anything, its just that with that small of a spider, its harder to feed...and usually, well with me recently, the smaller wild caught ones wont eat at all....but i had thrown some pinheads in with all of them and was hoping the biggest one would eat, but hasnt although one of the other ones did...i will probably let them go in my chicken building...if you caught them wild there, then they should be fine with cold weather...if you have like a old barn or somewhere like that to put them in....

I have a lovely female S. triangulosa who just laid 4 sacs. One sac is hatched...It's amazing how quickly they cannibalize, because there are only about 6 babies left from a sac of about 20, hatched a few weeks ago...So if anyone has an interest in keeping a few babies, I wouldn't worry too much about their size and them escaping, since there's not many to a sac and they die off quickly if kept together. Now I'm waiting on the other three sacs to hatch. If the weather wasn't so bad (major snowstorm dumpings), then I'd set them free, but for now it's been sweet to watch nature take its place.

I wish I had a good camera because I'd love to share pictures of this beauty!

 

[The Spider Faery]

the smaller wild caught ones wont eat at all....but i had thrown some pinheads in with all of them and was hoping the biggest one would eat, but hasnt although one of the other ones did...i will probably let them go in my chicken building...if you caught them wild there, then they should be fine with cold weather...if you have like a old barn or somewhere like that to put them in....

I'm hoping the cannibalising will keep the babies fed up until they're big enough to take small pinheads like the mother, or I might get flightless fruitflies if I need to. But the mother takes crickets no problem and eats very well. I found her in my bedroom! She had a web in the corner of the room and instead of keeping her there, I decided to make her a pet...She just happened to be gravid.

 

[catfishrod69]

thats cool..i just prefer to try and stay away from anything too small to take crickets or roaches....i have to order pinheads from the pet store cause they dont carry them normally...did have some FFF that i was feeding to some wild caught mantids that hatch out for me, once again, 2 things ill never do again....FFF, hated em, and there was probably 50 mantids that hatched out, and they kept dieing 1 by 1, then there was one left, and he molted for the first time, and looked beautiful, then next day was dead...oh well

I'm hoping the cannibalising will keep the babies fed up until they're big enough to take small pinheads like the mother, or I might get flightless fruitflies if I need to. But the mother takes crickets no problem and eats very well. I found her in my bedroom! She had a web in the corner of the room and instead of keeping her there, I decided to make her a pet...She just happened to be gravid.