Our Kitchen Spider

WhyUBiteBite

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Feb 14, 2017
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No idea what he is but hes done an excellent job eliminating the fruit flies we get in the area and even the nuisance Japanese beetles that live out here. If anyone knows what he is feel free to say but in the meantime I think I may name him given even the wife wants him to stay where he is at given how helpful hes been and as far as I can tell hes no danger. :) 20170219_191615.jpg
 

Chris LXXIX

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Ah ah, funny. I have a nice army of 'Tramp' spiders as well living in my garage and cellar, including the infamous six eyed dastard L.rufescens :mask:
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
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I like that. Never turn down an offer to help keeping the kitchen clean.

OP, your friend can deliver a pretty significant bite, so due respect is in order. But in general, they tend to stay in their webs and take care of business in their own private way. Enjoy your cooperative lifestyles.
 

WhyUBiteBite

Arachnosquire
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Feb 14, 2017
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I like that. Never turn down an offer to help keeping the kitchen clean.

OP, your friend can deliver a pretty significant bite, so due respect is in order. But in general, they tend to stay in their webs and take care of business in their own private way. Enjoy your cooperative lifestyles.
Yeah I hesitated after reading that about them but everyone is the house is aware and given they prefer flight to standing their ground we should be good. Only problem though is overnight he attached his web to a cup on one end so I was thinking maybe of using something hot to gently sever it without tearing the web? Thinking hopefully then it will catch something and reform in a manner that is still usable while allowing me to clean the dirty cup on the counter lol.
 

chanda

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I have dozens of these in my reptile/invert room. They do a great job of cleaning up escaped feeder crickets and fruit flies, though every once in a while they "clean up" something they aren't supposed to (like a baby gecko or whip spider). They mostly keep to themselves and skitter off and hide when I get too close. I have hand-caught them from time to time (when they get into one of the enclosures) and never been bit. Any that make it past the door into the rest of the house usually end up as cat treats. They are prolific, so unless you want a whole bunch more, you should remove any egg sacs you find. Don't worry about damaging her web to retrieve your cup - these spiders are very busy little webbers and quickly replace lost or damaged webs. I go through periodically with the vacuum cleaner and a Swiffer and clean up all the webs - and in just a matter of days, they're back.
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
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Yeah I hesitated after reading that about them but everyone is the house is aware and given they prefer flight to standing their ground we should be good.
You'd really have to be asking for it to get Steatoda triangulosa to bite you, and even if it did, its bite is not medically significant.
 

The Snark

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You'd really have to be asking for it to get Steatoda triangulosa to bite you, and even if it did, its bite is not medically significant.
But can give you a nice case of the ouchy itchy for a few days. This usually requires 1. spider standing it's ground and 2. Human doing something a little stupid. (That's the 40 year old cellular growth disruption from a Latro bite on the back of my knuckle. I'm good at the stupid thing.)
 

The Snark

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Latrodectus are a different matter; I was talking about the OP's Steatoda triangulosa.
In the picture of my hand, the red recent blotch was Steatoda. Actually, the onset of the two bites were very similar and the Steatoda actually hurt a little more and was quite itchy. But it went away in a few days where the L Hesperus stayed angry for over a month and the bite site has never been the same since.
 
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