Spider identifier

[janalta]

A big thank you to everyone who responded to my thread. I looked at all the links and I am 99.9% sure that it is the cellar spider. If it is that benefical and not venomous, then I guess I will leave them alone, even though it creeps me out a bit.

The white (or cream) colour spider is now a mystery. it is not very big, maybe the size of a quarter in total and it moves very fast.I thought it had no markings but one I saw tonight has some grey on the very end of it's lower torso. It is also very bold, it is not afraid of people or lit up areas.

I am just hoping it is not poisonus. I have a cat who loves to hunt and eat bugs, I just don't want to see him hurt.

Thanks again to everyone, all of you were very helpful.

Probably just a common garden spider...nothing to worry about at all. Harmless.
The Black Widow is the only native poisonous spider around here and they are very easily identified and are rarely found cruising around the house. They prefer to live away from humans, in dark places like irrigation boxes and crawl spaces.

My place is also crawling with cellar spiders...and I don't tolerate them nearly as well as the daddy long legs. But will take both over the wolf spiders and giant European house spiders. Creepy.

[Graphite]

I am not aware of any poisonous white spiders here. I would not worry about it.

[mexi cali]

Brown recluse spiders are not indigenous to Canada. Their range is the South Eastern United States and have been reported as far west as Texas. I'm not saying the Brown Recluse spider has not been seen in Canada, but if it has it has been a hitchhiker.

While this is a true statement, they have been seen her for several years. I had a group of them living under an old deck years ago and I did not know what they were but a local entomologist identified them as recluse or Browns and said that they likely migrated during an el nino year or some such thing.

I know of many who have had them in our neighborhood over the past few years and they may not be indigenous but they seem to be able to live here.

[Lizard]

What ever floats your boat. If you want to believe there are brown recluse spiders here, nothing I say or anyone else for that matter, will change your mind. However, I will leave you with two links to support my statements.

http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/efauna/spiders.html
http://spiders.ucr.edu/recluseid.html

Mr. Adder, look at the first link you provided and check the map. The rest of your links are from companies who have a vested interest in keeping you in fear of spiders to promote their products or business. The link to the people who have been bitten by a brown recluse is hearsay and conjecture, and hardly a reputable website.

One more link
http://biodiversitybc.blogspot.ca/2013/03/ask-expert-brown-recluse-spiders-in-bc.html

[livewire]

Brown recluse....Lizard.....not indigenous does not mean not here. I had one identified by the exterminator in a house we bought that had been vacant for 4 years. Uncommon yes....not here? No.

[mexi cali]

Black Widows are not indigenous in Alberta but they do pop up once on a while.

One story from a year or two back out of Cow town made the front page when a Widda was found in a bunch of fruit purchased from the local Coop that originated in the Okanagan. I laughed and laughed.

Man, they're like pets here.

[Scadam]

Brown recluse....Lizard.....not indigenous does not mean not here. I had one identified by the exterminator in a house we bought that had been vacant for 4 years. Uncommon yes....not here? No.

Exterminators aren't arachnologists - you might have gotten good one but who knows. I called an exterminator once when I had a newborn and was concerned as to whether the spiders we had were poisonous. After some research I'd thought they might be Hobo spiders, but all the exterminator was interested in was telling me we wouldn't see anymore for x number of months after he sprayed and he didn't know or care what it was. I didn't want poisons around unless the spider was dangerous but he was just not interested - if he was a smarter businessman he would have told me whatever justified him doing the job, but either way he wouldn't have known what he was talking about.

People's first response always seems to be to ID spiders as the scariest one; maybe because they're more badass or something. I had to fight through piles of misinformation to identify mine. Lots of sites and people talked about Hobo spiders, but much research allowed me to identify specific markings (and lack thereof) on the bottom of the torso of a captured spider and led me to know 100% that it was a Giant House Spider. I'd never even heard of this spider and to this day hardly ever do even though I've seen plenty of them in different homes in Kelowna.

[Lizard]

Exactly my point, Scadam. There is so much misinformation out there regarding spiders, especially the scary ones, that people will believe what ever feeds their particular paranoia. So people, If you want to believe there are brown recluse spiders in the Okanagan, or Canada for that matter, you go right ahead.

[mexi cali]

Thanks for allowing us that latitude.

[Pilotknight]

Last year, a man was reaching into cylinder of an old tractor on a farm in Kelowna and was bitten on the finger. Before going to the doctor to have it checked out, he collected the live spider in a jar and brought it with him. Two days later, his wound was necrotic. My wife was one of the medical staff that treated him at KGH and asked his permission to take a photo of the wound with her iphone as she'd never seen anything like it. (She's a bit of a science nerd) She also saw the spider still alive in the jar.

The spider was confirmed a Brown Recluse.

She still has the photo, it's cool and gross at the same time.

[Lizard]

You're quite welcome.

[brounal]

My philosophy with spiders is very simple. KILL THEM >>KILL THEM ALL!
Taken from one of my favorite shows.. Starship trooper. If I find any spider in my house I send them to their next life.
As they do creep me out and why take any chances. Kill them first. Let god sort them out!

[Wally]

The fiddleback ( recluse ) and the hobo spiders look quite similar, it would be easy to mistake if one didnt know the specific differences, doesnt really matter to me, I dont want wither one around me.

[French Castanut]

I just googled brown recluse and it's totally disgusting it rots the skin right out of you until you die.

[mexi cali]

As they do creep me out and why take any chances. Kill them first. Let god sort them out!

Good thing that doesn't apply to humans. And they creep me out.