Guides
Each guide answers one question completely, using observations you can make without touching anything.
The Big Spider in the Garden Web: Orb Weavers
The large spider in the wheel-shaped web across your path is an orb weaver, it is harmless, and it will be gone by December on its own.
3 min read
What Is in That White Ball? Spider Egg Sacs
Egg sacs are more distinctive than the spiders that made them. Shape, texture and where it is attached identify the group — including the one that matters.
4 min read
Identifying a Spider by Its Web
Web architecture is fixed by family, so the web identifies the group even when the spider is hidden. Four shapes cover almost everything you will find.
4 min read
Are There Black Widows Where You Live?
Four widow species cover most of the United States between them, and the brown widow is still spreading. The range is far wider than the recluse's.
3 min read
The Yellow Sac Spider: Small, Pale, and the One That Actually Bites
Pale, small, and responsible for a large share of genuine indoor spider bites — because it wanders at night and ends up in bedding rather than because it is aggressive.
3 min read
Jumping Spiders: How to Recognise the Ones Watching You Back
Two enormous forward-facing eyes and a habit of turning to look at you. Jumping spiders have the best vision of any spider and are entirely harmless.
3 min read
Wolf Spider or Nursery Web Spider? Watch What She Carries
A wolf spider carries her egg sac attached to her spinnerets and her young on her back. A nursery web spider carries hers in her jaws. Eye arrangement confirms it.
3 min read
Do Brown Recluses Come Out During the Day?
They are nocturnal, but that is not the useful answer. What matters is when and why they end up on an open floor, and which encounters actually lead to a bite.
3 min read
What a Brown Recluse Infestation Actually Looks Like
One spider is not an infestation. Here is what a genuine population looks like, how to find out with sticky traps, and what the numbers in real houses actually are.
3 min read
Six Spiders That Look Like a Brown Recluse (And Are Not)
Cellar spiders, funnel weavers, wolf spiders, sac spiders, ground spiders and woodlouse hunters — and the one feature each of them has that a recluse never does.
3 min read
How to Know If It Really Is a Brown Recluse
Six eyes in three pairs, uniform tan legs, and no pattern anywhere. The violin is the feature everyone checks first and the least dependable one on the animal.
3 min read
Brown Recluse or Wolf Spider? Size Settles It
Wolf spiders are big, hairy and patterned. Recluses are small and plain. Five differences you can check from a photograph, starting with the one that resolves most cases.
3 min read
Black Widow or Common House Spider? Look Underneath
Widows and house spiders build the same messy web in the same dark corner. The red hourglass underneath is the whole test — plus three backup checks including the egg sac.
3 min read