I have recently discovered some fat black spiders in my garden. (And one so far in the house) They are very quick, do not appear to be aggresive, and seem to be more proportionate in body & leg size than a black widow. My first guess is a common garden spider, but I have not been able to catch a good enough glimpse of one to see it's belly & whether or not it has a red hourglass. Every time I have seen one it was running to hide in a dark spot. I have not yet found a nest either. If anyone has any links or general info to give me a clue (so I can see how cautious I should be) I would very greatly appreciate it.
Thank you
Tempest

I'm with you, Meg. I hate spiders. Wait a second, let me put that in bold...
I HATE SPIDERS!!!
Don't get me wrong...I don't kill them unless it's a "have-to" situation (Andy's not home, and there's one in the shower!). I don't want to be near one, I don't want to look at one, and I will have to change my drawers if one gets on me!

If I was on "Fear Factor" and they put me in a tank full of snakes, I'd do fine. But, if they put me in a tank with ONE itsy, bitsy spider, NO WAY!!!

(I was traumatized by a spider as a child! Ran into a big web in the woods and the 4-inch long spider was on my FACE!!!)

Cindy

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Buckle up! It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car!

I'm with all of you! I don't know much about spiders except I dont' wanna be near 'em. I feel the same about snakes.

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Talentless but connected.

Hmmmmmmmmmm
I've got lotsa spiders here. Some of them are black, and like to race across the floor. I try to catch em in a jar, and put em in the corner. That way they can catch bugs, and when they catch lotsa bugs and wrap em up, they make easy meals for my flytrap, and pitcher plants ^.^

I'm not afraid of seein a spider, but i'm scared to death of finding one on me I just don't ever want em touching me >.< when i try to catch em by hand, they'll run around on my hand really fast and start going up my arm, and i'll scream and wave my arm around till it gets off lol. They're nice to look at, but too icky to touch >.<

Anywho, i have black spiders that run around on the floor. Can they climb walls? These ones like to stay on the ground, and not build webs. They look like minature black, and/or light brown striped terantulas.

I dropped a web making spider onto the floor one time by accident, and one of the lil black ones ran out and killed it from behind and dragged it off! it was like a lil eight legged cannibalistic ninja!!

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Nako's Webshots!

Thank you all for your replies. I like spiders personally, and do not like killing them any more than any other helpful creature (although I must admit there are a few bugs I don't feel quite so nice about- cockroaches, mosquitos, and ticks primarily) and, lol, it's usually my husband who jumps and screams when I warn him about digging through the wood-pile or if I just saw one scurry across the floor into the pile of dirty clothes on the closet floor... although I admit to having jumped a few times (pretty high too) when I found one crawling on my hand/arm whatever. These ones I have not seen on any walls or for that matter in any webs. Have not found the nest yet, but they seem to be fairly helpful against the grasshoppers and other leaf-eaters. They have been only seen during the day, and so far I only actually found one web (somebody ate the spider that built it though..wasn't much left) Thank you Papito for the link . I guess I was being too specific in description when searching for info because all I could find was about red-backs. (and one link about the beautiful black & yellow garden spiders) These ones are pitch black and very roundish. They don't seem to be any harm. Now if I can just get the cats to stop eating all my lizards.......