Black and Yellow Garden Spider
HarmlessArgiope aurantia · also called writing spider, corn spider, zipper spider, banana spider (misapplied)
The garden spider is the big, dramatic, black-and-yellow orbweaver that appears in gardens and field edges in late summer. It looks alarming and is completely harmless. The white zigzag it writes into the web is one of the most recognisable structures in North American natural history, and nobody is entirely sure what it is for.
Quick facts
- Bite risk
- Harmless. A bite would be comparable to a bee sting and essentially never happens, because the spider retreats rather than defends.
- Size
- Body 19–28 mm. Females are large and unmistakable — body up to an inch, legspan the width of your palm. Males are a fraction of the size.
- Appearance
- Bold black-and-yellow patterned abdomen, silvery head-and-thorax, and black legs with orange or yellow bands near the body.
- Web
- A large vertical orb web with a dense zigzag of white silk down the middle, called a stabilimentum. Nothing else in a US garden writes on its web like this.
- Found in
- garden, grassland, woods
- Family
- Araneidae
- Range
- Most of the United States
How to identify a black and yellow garden spider
- The white zigzag ribbon down the centre of the web.
- Large size and bold black-and-yellow abdomen.
- Sits head-down in the middle of a big vertical orb web.
- Appears in numbers in late summer and autumn, then dies off after the first frosts.
How it behaves
Sits in the web day and night, and rebuilds most of it each morning. Drops out of the web or shakes it violently when disturbed rather than approaching.
What the black and yellow garden spider is confused with
One observation settles each of these.
Banded garden spiders have finer horizontal bands in silver, yellow and black rather than bold blotches. Both are harmless Argiope.
If you think you were bitten
- Most suspected spider bites are not spider bites. Studies of patients presenting with a “spider bite” repeatedly find that the large majority are bacterial skin infections — frequently MRSA — which need antibiotics rather than reassurance. A spreading, painful, pus-filled sore is far more likely to be an infection than a spider.
- Wash it, ice it, and watch it. Clean the area with soap and water, apply a cold pack, and keep an eye on it.
- Get medical care if the wound spreads or darkens, if you develop cramping, sweating, fever or severe abdominal pain, or if you are confident it was a widow or a recluse.
- Bring the spider only if it is already dead and to hand. Do not go looking for it. Doctors treat symptoms, not species.
In the US, the Poison Help line is 1-800-222-1222. This site is a reference, not medical advice.