I’m a bug guy, as is the rest of my nerd clan. One of my favorites is the fishing spiders.



This variety is closely related to the actual fishing spiders that catch minnows but have completely different habits and habitats. These like woodland areas and woodpiles; they often overwinter in my woodpiles as they are dry and offer protection from foraging birds. They are often mistaken for wolf spiders which are a good bit aggressive. Fishing spiders are shy, and more likely to try and escape. I’ve held these guys quite a bit and they’re large enough that you feel the mass.

host pictures

They can very widely in color but typically share basically the same bars and stripes theme.





They have largish mandibles and are covered with long vibration detecting hairs. The forward looking, large eyes say that it is an active predator rather an ambush or web spider. Note that each leg tip has a set of twin hooks for gripping and rapid movement. They are very fast.



Beautiful creatures overall and a good pest control friend to have around.

Kinda reminds me of my second grade teacher. She had those "predator" eyes and quick reach to grab you by the collar and not let go. (Later on in life, I taught at the same school as she did for a couple of years and learned to appreciate her as a good teacher and a strict disciplinarian. )

I am the same way toward spiders - I have never liked their mean looks, but I have learned the appreciate the good things they do and no longer cause them any grief - especially wolf spiders.

Thanks for the interesting post gearhounds.

I keep a spider- and cricket-friendly house. They keep my home free of silverfish and other pests. There were a lot of those pests when I first moved in.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I keep a spider- and cricket-friendly house. They keep my home free of silverfish and other pests.

Crickets are helpful, eh?

Over this past summer I frequently heard crickets in the garage, but rarely saw one. As the weather cooled, I found a lot of small black dead crickets. I think this is the first time I've seen them in such quantity. If they keep silverfish and other critters out, I'm fine with it.

^^^^
Yeah – especially the crickets. When they come in the spiders decline. Either the crickets kill the spiders directly, or eat so many pests that the spiders starve.

The crickets are aggressive predators while the spiders are passive predators. At least my house spiders are.

I should read the whole title

I quit reading after "I give you dolomedes" and I thought I was opening a thread about my favorite Greek appetizer.

quote:

Crickets are helpful, eh?

They are indeed. They not only prey on things like silverfish, but they are eaters of roach eggs if you have them.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
They are indeed. They not only prey on things like silverfish, but they are eaters of roach eggs if you have them.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
^^^^
Yeah – especially the crickets. When they come in the spiders decline.

Well, then. Welcome, little black crickets!

All I know is Black Widows eat beetles as well as scorpions and don’t like cold weather. When it was 40 degrees a few weeks ago, I was cutting holes in the sheet metal of the new garage. At one spot, there were dead beetles and scorpions lying on the concrete and just above them was a spider web complete with three egg sacks. I knocked them off the sheet metal and lo and behold there was a balled up Black Widow. I figured it was dead, but then its legs started moving.

Interesting. We have crickets all over the place here but I never considered that they would be aggressive predators. I always left them alone but now I better tell my two granddaughters to back off as well.

As far as black widows go, I have only seen two in all the years I have owned the farm and both of those were in the barn. They pretty much keep to themselves.

This one is a Phidippus mystaceus.